A senior member of Islamic Jihad and at least seven other Palestinians have been killed in a blast in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to doctors and witnesses.

Ayman al-Fayed, also known as Abu Abdallah, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his home in Bureij Palestinian refugee camp near Gaza City on Friday, Islamic Jihad said.

But a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said that Israeli forces had no involvement in the incident.

"We did not undertake any operations on Friday against the Gaza Strip... We are not involved in what happened at Bureij tonight," she said.

Revenge pledge

Medical sources identified al-Fayed, 42, as a senior commander from al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.

Two of al-Fayed's two children, a girl and a boy, were also killed in the blast, Palestinian doctors said.

"We will respond to this Zionist massacre painfully," Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said.

"We will strike the enemy everywhere."

Al-Fayed's house was completely destroyed, while several other houses in the neighborhood were badly damaged.

At least 170 people, most of them fighters based in the Gaza Strip, have been killed since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks in November.

Israel is only pursuing negotiations with the Fatah faction led by Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian president.

Fatah has been frozen out of the Gaza Strip since their forces were routed by rival group Hamas in June.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians inspect the site of a blast at the Bureij refugee camp, central Gaza strip, 15 February, 2008