The obscure explosion in Nablus left one Palestinian killed, two injured (AFP)

Additional Reporting By Mustafa el-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY, October 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with large-scale incursions into the Gaza Strip Thursday, October 23.

Backed by 20 tanks and armored vehicles, the Israeli army pushed hundreds of meters into the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, raiding dozens of houses and scooping up large swathes of farmlands, Palestinian security sources said.

“A number of local inhabitants were wounded, one seriously and another moderately,” said the director of Naser hospital.

But Palestinian fighters put up stiff resistance, destroying one Israeli tank by explosives and exchanging fire with the occupation forces, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

Israeli forces also pushed into the West Bank city of Ramallah, raiding houses and detaining all male inhabitants in two schools in the area, said al-Jazeera.

The incursions came after Israeli forces detained seven Palestinians in fresh raids under the pretext of preparing anti-Israel attacks.

‘Obscure’ Explosion

In the meanwhile, three Hamas and Fatah activists were injured in an obscure explosion that destroyed their car in the northern West Bank town of Nablus late Wednesday.

The shuddering explosion left the back of the car flattened and throwing its parts a few meters away, eyewitnesses told IOL.

Palestinian medical sources identified two of the wounded as Khaled Hamad, from Hamas’ armed wing Ezz el-Dine Al-Qassam Brigades and Raed Saad from Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyres Brigades.

Hospital sources were later quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying that one of the three died of his injuries on Thursday morning.

An Israeli military source said he was aware of the blast, but stressed the Israeli army had nothing to do with it.

In the West Bank city of al-Khalil, the Israeli army destroyed the home of Mohamed Rashid, a Fatah activist who was killed Wednesday in clashes that left two Israeli soldiers injured, one seriously.

They also razed the house of Shadi Shekhedem, a 19-year-old member of the Fatah armed wing, now in Israeli detention after a seven-year sentence.

Since August, the Israeli army has dynamited more than 200 houses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that belonged to Palestinians involved in anti-Israeli attacks.

Palestinians and human rights groups slam the move as collective punishment.

In apparent retaliation, Al-Qassam Brigades launched three Qassam 2 missiles on Jewish settlements in northern Gaza Strip and others in the vicinity of its southern parts.

More Deaths

Also late on Wednesday, a man who was seriously wounded during an Israeli air raid on a refugee camp in central Gaza on Monday, October 20, died of his injuries, Palestinian medics said.

Ayman al-Malik, 20, was seriously wounded when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired a missile at a car in Nusseirat refugee camp late on Monday, a strike the medics said left seven dead and 40 wounded.

Hospital sources described four of the wounded as clinically dead.

Malik's death raised to 14 the number of people killed in five Israeli raids on Monday. Around 70 others were injured.

It brings to 3,570 the number of people killed since the start of the Intifada against Israeli occupation in September 2000, including 2,658 Palestinians and 846 Israelis, according to an AFP account.

Twelve Palestinians were killed, mostly civilians, and 70 wounded in the Monday air strikes.