A powerful explosion killed five people and wounded more than 60 other Thursday in the Gaza Strip. The blast ripped through the house of senior Hamas commander Ahmed Hamudi according to the Palestinian security sources.

The deadly explosion was labeled as a "work accident" by eyewitnesses, while the Israel Defense Forces described the incident as an internal Palestinian matter.

Two militants were shot and killed by the Israel Defense Forces earlier Thursday in northern Gaza. The militants were trying to place explosives near a border fence according to sources from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Fatah.

Israeli officials said another barrage of rockets was fired into their country from Gaza. A bomb that landed in a house in Yad Mordechai wounded a 59-year-old woman.

The IDF reported that 3 Grad rockets, 18 Qassam rockets and 18 mortar shells were launched from Gaza into the Jewish state on Thursday.

The number of mortars and rockets launched from Gaza into Israel this year reached the staggering number of 2,300, while 2,000 were fired in all of 2007, the Israeli military informed.

The exchange of blows between the Palestinian militants and the Israeli military often lead to civilian casualties, inflaming the Palestinian leadership.

Hamas is considered a terrorist group because it does not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.