According to initial reports, three Palestinian workers were hit by an Israeli artillery shell east of Gaza city while collecting gravel. Medical sources, however, later said one person was killed and two others were seriously wounded when an unexploded ordnance device left behind by the Israeli army went off in the area.

Medical sources identified the dead man as Ahmad Abu Wadi, 22.

The Israeli army said it had not launched an attack on Gaza and said the explosion might have occurred during a failed attempt to launch a rocket toward Israel. According to the army, those who were hurt in the blast were perhaps members of Islamic Jihad.

Israel targets Palestinian farmers and gravel collectors near the Gaza-Israel border on a daily basis. Several of them have so far been killed and injured.