Five killed in Gaza after unexploded Israeli missile detonates

At least five people were killed and another six were critically injured after an unexploded Israeli missile blew up in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses and a health ministry spokesman said.

Ashraf al-Qidra identified three of the dead as Bilal Muhammad al-Sultan, 27, Taysir Ali al-Hum, 40, and Hazem Ahmad Abu Murad, 38.

Among the dead are a foreign reporter for The Associated Press and a local journalist, a Ma'an reporter said.

The bodies and the injured were taken to Kamal Adwan hospital, al-Qidra added.

Palestinian photojournalist Hatem Moussa was also injured in the explosion.

Witnesses said the incident occurred as a police engineering team was attempting to defuse an Israeli missile that hit near the al-Sheikh Zayid towers days earlier, but did not explode.

Witnesses at the scene said six people were killed by the explosion.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's offensive on Gaza, most of them civilians.