GAZA - A senior Hamas leader survived an Israeli assassination attempt on Wednesday but at least five other Palestinians were killed in the night-time explosion that tore through his Gaza home. Hamas gunmen said a missile fired by an Israeli drone hit the residence of Ahmed al-Jabari, a top commander in the militant Islamic group's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades. Doctors said he suffered leg wounds.

"In an Israeli security forces operation in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defence Forces targeted a senior Hamas terrorist," the army said in a terse statement.

The army, which killed Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin in March and his successor, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a month later in air strikes, did not say how the latest attack was carried out. Residents said they saw no aircraft at the time of the blast.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon plans to pull Israeli settlers and soldiers out of the Gaza Strip by the end of next year and Israeli forces and Palestinian militants have been bent on scoring "victory" in the run-up to the withdrawal.

Medics said five people - Jabari's son, a brother, a son-in-law, a cousin and one of Rantissi's son-in-laws - were pronounced dead in hospital and about a dozen others were wounded. At least three of the dead were known militants.

"We heard a loud explosion and ran outside," one neighbour said. "We saw (Jabari's) house was completely on fire."

Jabari, in his 40s, spent 13 years in Israeli prisons before being released in 1995 under interim peace deals. Hamas, dedicated to Israel's destruction, has carried out dozens of suicide attacks during a nearly four-year-old Palestinian uprising. (Agencies via Xinhua)