Saturday, September 24 2005 09:40 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Jerusalem: At least 19 Hamas activists have been killed and 80 wounded as a series of explosions rocked a rally of the Islamic militant faction at Jabaliya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, hospital sources said.

Hamas accused Israel of targeting its rally yesterday (Sept 23, 2005) with missiles fired from drones and vowed to avenge the 'massacre' while some Palestinian officials said that explosives being demonstrated at the rally may have exploded in an accident.

"This is a massacre, a real carnage and we will avenge it," Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the militant faction, said while rejecting claims by the Palestinian Authority officials who called it a 'working accident.'

"I saw the missiles with my two own eyes and thousands of people saw these missiles coming," he said, adding, "How come some PA officials deny and acquit Zionist enemy of the crime".

A statement from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) rejected the claims as 'baseless' warning that 'any attempt to use this incident as a pretext for attacks against Israeli civilians will be viewed with gravity.'

"We have no connection to the incident. We had helicopters only on the outskirts guarding the area where our soldiers are positioned," an IDF spokesperson, Major Avital Leibovich, told sources.

Hamas said that among the dead were three of its militants, including As'ad Rian, the brother of Nizar Rian, a senior member of its political wing.

However, PA official Abu Ali Shaheen said the blasts were an 'accident resulting from a collision between two vehicles carrying explosives.'