Three Palestinian mourners were killed and 20 others wounded Friday when an explosion hit a funeral procession for a Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant killed during an Israeli airstrike, medics said.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency services at Shifa Hospital said that three were killed and 20 others wounded by an explosion during the funeral dominated by noise and din in Gaza City.

Hundreds of Islamic Jihad supporters gathered at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City and carried the body of Khalil Al-Masar'a to Gaza graveyard in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza, witnesses said.

The Islamic Jihad militant and two Palestinian civilians were killed during the Israeli airstrike on a car driving in Zeitoon neighborhood in southern Gaza City on Thursday night.

During the funeral, which took to Gaza main streets, militants fired into the air to salute al-Masar'a, said the witnesses, adding that a big explosion took place when mourners carried the bodies on their shoulders heading to the graveyard.

They said that the explosion was caused by a hand grenade of one of the Islamic Jihad militants participating in the funeral, which apparently fell on the ground and exploded.

But a Palestinian participant at the funeral gave another version running contradictorily to the explanation of mishandling, saying that the hand grenade was hurled by someone deliberately but not fell unconsciously. He added that militants then opened fire back after the bomb attack.

Hamas police said the incident was under investigation.

(Xinhua News Agency December 15, 2007)