GAZA CITY, September 23, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – In its latest but most blatant violation of the shaky truce, Israeli warplanes bombarded a mass rally organized by thousands of Hamas supporters in northern Gaza on Friday, September 23, killing at least 19 people, including two children, and wounding 80 others.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli aircraft fired four missiles at the rally in Jabalya refugee camp, reported Al-Jazeera news channel.

Other witnesses reported seeing an Israeli military drone in the sky hours before, according to Reuters.

Body parts were scattered on the ground and the vehicle that carried the Hamas gunmen was found charred. Thousands of Palestinians stormed the streets of the camp, carrying the wounded and shouting for revenge.

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

The Palestinian Interior Ministry put the death toll at 19, adding that first indications suggest the blast was caused by Hamas explosives packed into the car.

The Israeli army denied involvement in the deadly blast, the first in Gaza since it completed the withdrawal of all its troops on September.

The Palestinian resistance group Hamas blamed the massacre on the Israeli occupation forces.

"I was an eyewitness and saw Israeli warplanes fire four missiles at the rally," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zahri told Al-Jazeera news channel.

"Our doctors found this small tracking and explosive plate inside the body of one of the martyrs," Nizar Rayan, a prominent Hamas leader, told a press conference, showing the device to the cameras.

"Such a technology is far advanced for us," he stressed, suggesting the device was Israeli-made.

He also refuted suggestions that the blasts were triggered by Hamas's own explosives.

"All rockets and explosive charges used in the rally, just like all rallies, are only ballistic models and not real weapons," an angry Rayan told reporters.

"Every body familiar with such rallies knows for a fact that Hamas never showcase real weapons."

The Hamas leader also lashed out at the Palestinian Interior Ministry for rushing to exonerate Israel.

"How could it (the ministry) issue four statements on the incident without even bothering to visit the attack site," Rayan fumed.

He said one of those killed in the Israeli strike was Assad Abdel Qader Mohammad Al-Rayan, a local leader of Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Sheikh Hassan Youssef, a leading Hamas figure, stressed that the Palestinian resistance groups would reconsider the truce they have been abiding by for months.

"The factions were committed to the cooling off period but what the Israeli occupation forces perpetrated marks a grave, unacceptable development," he told Al-Jazeera.

"The Palestinian people must not remain hand folded vis-à-vis the incessant Israeli aggressions. The Israelis can not enjoy the peace they deprive the Palestinian of."

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas managed to convince Palestinian resistance factions in March to observe a "period of calm" conditional on Israel ending its aggressions against them.

Since then, the calm has been put to the test several times in view of continued Israeli violations.

Over the past months, many Palestinians were killed and wounded by Israeli gunfire, drawing retaliatory mortar and rocket attacks from Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters.

Osama Hemdan, a Lebanon-based Hamas leader, accused Israel of trying to sabotage peace.

"Israel is seeking to throw a spinner into the peace process," he told the Doha-based broadcaster.

"This new crime refutes allegations that Israel wants peace and paint (Israeli Premier Ariel) Sharon as a man of peace," he averred.

"This attack should silence all those who call for the disarming of the resistance groups under the pretext that the occupation forces have withdrawn from Gaza," Hemdan said.

"The resistance's weapons are the only guarantee the Palestinian people have."