A Palestinian was killed on Saturday afternoon in a blast in southeast Gaza Strip town of KhanYounis, security sources said.

The sources said that Sami al-Daghma, 25, died and a second man was injured when a home-made rocket exploded.

The rocket was fired earlier towards Israel but prematurely landed in al-Faraheen area in eastern Khan Younis, near al-Daghma's house, and did not went off until the two men tried to evacuate it.

The slain and wounded people were members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

Security and policemen from Islamic Hamas movement, which has been controlling Gaza since routing pro-Abbas forces in 2007, were called to the scene of the blast and opened an investigation.

The level of Palestinian rocket attacks against Israel has largely decreased after Israel ended a three-week offensive in Gaza in January due to Hamas's interest in keeping the situation calm there.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2009)