Gaza, Dec 19 (DPA) Five Palestinian militants were killed Saturday night after Israeli planes targeted them in an open area in the central Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

An Israeli army spokesman told Israeli Radio that "the air force attacked a Gaza-based cell of gunmen on Saturday, made up of five armed Palestinians who were suspected of attempting to launch rockets into Israeli territory."

Palestinian paramedics and witnesses described a sudden explosion and confirmed the death of five Palestinian militants.

The witnesses said that the explosion was heard south of the central Gaza Strip town of Deir el-Balah, adding that ambulances rushed to the place where the explosion took place and evacuated five bodies to a nearby hospital.

The security forces of the ruling Islamic Hamas movement in the coastal enclave began an immediate investigation into causes of the blast

The militants' identities were not immediately known.