Meanwhile an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at a house in Zeitun, as Palestinian security sources said Egyptian diplomats were talking Wednesday with the Islamic Jihad group for the return of the missing parts.

The deaths of the soldiers, blown up in their armoured personnel carrier as they took part in a heavy Israeli raid into Zeitun, sparked a crisis in the Israeli government amid plans by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out of the Gaza Strip.

Israeli infantry backed by helicopters resumed the search for the remains of their comrades Wednesday morning, after Sharon's security cabinet decided the night before that the operation would go on until all missing body parts were found.

"We will continue our search operation until we find the bodies and the remains of our soldiers," an army spokesman said.

The six were killed when their armoured personnel carrier was blown to bits by militants who had planted bombs during an army raid into Zeitun to destroy equipment used by Palestinian groups to manufacture rockets.

Eight Palestinians were also killed in the fighting, along with a child who died in a helicopter strike on a neighbouring district.

Meanwhile an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a missile near a mosque in Gaza City yesterday killing three Palestinians and wounding at least eight, most of them women and children, witnesses and medics said.

The Israeli army said it fired at a group laying explosives against Israeli forces in the Zeitoun neighborhood, where Palestinian militants blew up six Israeli soldiers in a troop carrier during a raid on Tuesday.

"We understand it hit civilians, but they (the militants) are carrying explosives in civilian areas and if we hadn't hit them we would have seen another event like the one yesterday," an army spokeswoman said.