Six Palestinians, including four Hamas militants, were killed and over 20 wounded in a series of explosions and attacks in Gaza City on Friday, according to the Interior Ministry of the deposed Hamas government and medics.
Medics at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City said four militants and an eight-year-old girl were killed and 20 others injured in an explosion at the Coastal Road in western Gaza City on Friday evening.
Witnesses said they heard a huge explosion, adding that four Hamas militants inside a car was attacked by a homemade bomb.
Hamas movement's armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement sent to reporters that unknown individuals attacked the car driving on Gaza coastal road, adding that all of the four Hamas militants were killed.
The statement said the blast also killed the eight-year-old girl nearby, injuring around 20 people.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known, but the group blamed rival Fatah movement militants for being behind the attack on Hamas militants' car, saying "groups which have fled the Gaza Strip" masterminded the explosion.
The Islamist Hamas movement took over the Gaza Strip from Fatah and security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June last year, following a-week-long deadly infighting.
Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry of the Hamas unity government ruling in Gaza said in a statement that the bomb attack on the car is the first in Gaza since Hamas took the rein of the Gaza Strip.
"The aim of carrying out such attacks is to bring the Gaza Strip back to the status of chaos and disorder that dominated the area before Hamas came and took control of Gaza," said the ministry.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader, accused Palestinian groups "who collaborate with the enemy (Israel)" of being behind the blast, adding, "It is the work of groups trying to undermine the security of the Palestinian people."
Earlier on Friday morning, a Palestinian was killed in an attack on a cafe in Gaza City, Hamas police said, adding that another bomb was hurled at a house of a Hamas parliament member in Gaza City. No injuries were reported.
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2008)
