A Hamas activist was critically wounded Tuesday in an explosion in his home, while thousands marched in the funeral procession of another Islamic resistance leader killed earlier this week during the demolition of his home by Israeli occupation troops. The cause of Tuesday's explosion in the Bureij refugee camp, south of Gaza City, was not immediately clear. In the past, Palestinian activists building bombs have inadvertently set off explosives, causing death and injury.

Others have been killed in targeted Israeli attacks, but no Israeli attack helicopters were seen over Bureij on Tuesday.

The explosion went off in the home of Mohammed Baghdadi, 30, who lost a leg and suffered severe injuries to his upper body, doctors said. Baghdadi is a former bodyguard of Hamas' spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.

The Islamic resistance group is responsible for scores of resistance bombings in Israel in recent years, and has said it would retaliate with more attacks for Israel's two-week military offensive against Hamas in Gaza.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, thousands marched in the funeral procession of Abdallah al-Saba, 52, a senior member of the Islamic Jihad group. Al-Saba was killed Sunday, after he refused to leave his home targeted for demolition by Israeli occupation troops.

Al-Saba's family left the building after a four-hour standoff, during which al-Saba and his three adult sons threw hand grenades and fired shots at Israeli occupation troops. After the family left, occupation soldiers blew up the building.

Al-Saba's body was discovered under the rubble on Monday, and it remained unclear whether occupation troops knew at the time of the demolition that he was still inside the house.

The house was targeted for demolition after one of al-Saba's sons, Mustafa, attacked Israel occupation soldiers guarding an industrial park in Gaza last week before being shot to death.

On Tuesday, mourners standing on the rubble of al-Saba's home chanted: "You sacrificed your son, your house and yourself to go to heaven."

Al-Saba was a senior member of Islamic Jihad, and had spent several years in Israeli jails.

Israel has demolished dozens of family homes of suspected activists since the summer, hoping to deter future attacks on Israelis. Al-Saba was the first homeowner to resist demolition by force.

In Nablus, a 23-year-old Palestinian wounded when Israeli occupation soldiers fired on rock-throwers in the West Bank city of Nablus on Feb. 16 died Tuesday, hospital officials said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians chant Islamic slogans while carrying the covered body of Abdallah al-Saba after they took the body from a house demolished a day earlier during the Israeli incursion into Beit Hanoun city, Monday Feb. 24, 2003. Al-Saba is the father of Moatassem, an Islamic Jihad activist who was killed Friday during an attempted attack on Israeli occupation troops in northern Gaza. (AP Photo/Adel Han