Ongoing Israeli military attack killed three children in the Gaza Strip on Friday morning, local witnesses and medical sources said.

Paramedics said that two children were killed and ten people were injured during an Israeli airstrike in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and another girl was killed by Israeli tank shelling in the northern area of Jabaliya.

Local witness said Israeli airplanes struck some 40 targets throughout the Gaza Strip overnight Friday, including a mosque. The Israeli gunboat also bombarded western Gaza Strip from the sea, added the witnesses.

The Israeli airstrikes and tank shelling is still going on across the strip, but the tanks have withdrawn to the outskirts of Gaza City, witness said.

Medical sources in Gaza reported that 23 bodies have been found under the rubble of a building in Gaza City's Tel Hawwa neighborhood which was heavily bombarded by Israeli ground forces on Thursday.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein said that the death toll since the beginning of the Israeli massive attack on Gaza has exceeded 1,100, with an addition of 5,000 wounded.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2009)