Local people in Gaza inspect the damaged building bombed by Israeli airstrikes April 16. Eighteen Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers were killed on Wednesday in a daylong of mutual Israeli and Palestinian attacks in several Gaza Strip areas. [Xinhua Photo]

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in the Palestinian health ministry told reporters that 12Palestinians were killed and 20 others wounded in an Israeli tanks shelling on al-Bureij refugee camp.

Palestinian residents said that an Israeli helicopter fired at least four air-to-ground missiles at a mosque and two neighboring houses in Johr el-Deik neighborhood east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

Earlier on Wednesday, several Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers stormed the area. Palestinian militants and Israeli soldiers have been exchanging fire in the area.

Witnesses at al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza Strip said that the bodies turned into pieces of flesh, adding that the bodies remains were collected and put into plastic bags.

Hassanein said that among the 12 people that were killed, there are women and children, adding that twenty more people were injured, five of them are in critical conditions.

Earlier Wednesday, a Palestinian militant was killed and five were injured in two separate Israeli airstrike on northern Gaza Strip. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) said that he is one of its militants.

On Wednesday morning, four Islamic Hamas militants and three Israeli soldiers were killed during an ongoing Israeli ground operations into the area between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel.

(Xinhua News Agency April 17, 2008)