Palestine delivered the remains of sixIsraeli soldiers killed in Gaza City to Israeli officials on Thursday morning, a Palestinian security official said.

The remains were carried by ambulance and handed over in a box to the Israelis at the Erez Crossing north of Gaza, the security official said.

The six Israeli soldiers were killed in an attack on Israeli forces 18 months ago, when their armored vehicle ran over an explosive device in Gaza City.

"We have delivered the body parts to the Egyptian intelligence service in the presence of an official from the Palestinian Authority," said a joint statement issued on Tuesday by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestine, President Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement and Islamic Jihad.

Egyptian mediators received the remains of the six killed soldiers earlier on Thursday as part of a deal worked out with Palestinian militants.

According to the statement, the deal had been conditional on anIsraeli troop withdrawal from Gaza City's Zeitoun district which took place about an hour before the statement was issued.

On Thursday, Israel killed seven Palestinians in a missile strike against the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza, where Palestinian militants blew up an Israeli army carrier packed with explosives, killing five soldiers.

Source: Xinhua