Another explosion outside the Temple Walls: Revelation 11

1 dead, 10 hurt in Gaza explosion; IDF says not involved

Blast in the Gaza City’s Al-Zawiya marketplace collapses large part of a house, damages dozens of nearby buildings and shops

By Agencies and TOI staff22 Jul 2021, 1:15 pm

One person was killed and 10 were injured Thursday when an explosion tore through a house in a popular marketplace in Gaza City, the Hamas-run interior ministry said.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

The blast in the Al-Zawiya area collapsed large parts of the house and damaged dozens of buildings and shops nearby, according to the statement.

Police explosives and engineering teams continue to investigate the causes of the explosion. Civil defense teams and the police were able to control the resulting fire.

The blast shook the neighborhood on the third day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The Israeli army signaled it wasn’t involved, calling the explosion an “internal matter” in Gaza.

Gaza City already was struggling with heavy damage sustained during an 11-day conflict in May between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

The World Bank earlier this month said rebuilding Gaza would cost $485 million, including up to $380 million to repair the physical damage alone.

Israeli officials have said they will condition allowing the reconstruction of Gaza on progress and easing the heightened restrictions on reaching a prisoner exchange with Hamas that secures the return of two Israeli civilians and two soldiers’ bodies held by the terror group.

Israeli airstrikes and artillery fire on Gaza in response to rocket fire killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people in 11 days of conflict from May 10, according to the Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza. Israel says over 200 of those killed were terror operatives. It says some of the civilian fatalities were caused by rocket fire that fell short and landed in the Strip.

Rocket and other projectile fire from Gaza killed 13 in Israel, including a child and a teenager, an Israeli soldier, one Indian national and two Thai workers. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded.