Several people, including children, have been killed and many more injured in northern Gaza after a car exploded at a military parade organised by the Islamic resistance group Hamas, Aljazeera reports.

Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza reported four killed and 25 injured while Reuters quoting medics told of 10 fatalities. Hamas sources said five members of its armed wing died in Friday's blast.

AP reported quoting hospital doctors that seven Palestinians died and 85 were wounded when a pickup truck carrying masked fighters blew up at the Hamas rally.

Ten of the wounded were in serious condition, hospital doctors said.

The explosion occurred as thousands of Hamas members and supporters attended a rally in the impoverished Jabaliya refugee camp to celebrate Israel's historic pullout from the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.

The blast ripped through the camp just before one of the main leaders of Hamas, Ismail Haniya, was to address the crowd.

Israel blamed

Hamas blamed Israel, saying Israeli aircraft flew overhead during the rally, but Israel denied it was involved.

Witnesses said participants crowded around the pickup truck carrying fighters when the explosion went off. The witnesses added that the truck carried homemade weapons, but did not know whether they were rockets or grenade launchers.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian fighters in Tulkarim in the West Bank, drawing strong condemnation from another Palestinian resistance group, Islamic Jihad.

The three fighters from al-Quds Brigades, the military arm of Islamic Jihad, were killed just hours after Israeli soldiers evacuated an army base.

Afterwards, Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza said nine rockets were fired from Gaza towards the Israeli township of Sderot, in the first such incident since Israeli forces completed a pullout from the territory 10 days ago.

Rockets fired

Al-Quds Brigades said it fired the rockets from Bait Hanun into Israel to avenge the killing of its three cadres.

No casualties or damage were reported from the rocket which on Friday crashed into a field in southwest Israel near the border with the northern Gaza Strip.

Military sources could confirm only one rocket impact. "Other explosions were heard in the region but no (other impact in Israel) has been confirmed," a source said.

Khalid al-Batsh, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, held Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defence Minister Saul Mofaz responsible for what he called "a deliberate assassination".

Also on Friday, Palestinian police and Hamas fighters briefly exchanged fire, leaving an armed Hamas man wounded, security officials and hospital doctors said.

At talks between Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Gaza representatives of the main factions on Wednesday, fighters agreed to stop by Saturday all armed rallies and marches celebrating Israel's pullout from Gaza.

The last Israeli troops left the Palestinian territory on 12 September, following a 38-year occupation.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Palestinian carries a wounded boy after an explosion at a Hamas rally in the Jabalya refugee camp, north of the Gaza Strip September 23, 2005. (Reuters)