Sources: 23 Palestinians killed in two days
11 Israeli soldiers have died during same period in Gaza
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 Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vows to strike Palestinian militants after six Israeli soldiers were killed in a Gaza City explosion.
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 Israel launches operation in Gaza City to destroy workshops making Qassam rockets.
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 Gallery: Clashes in the Middle East
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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- At least 23 Palestinians have been killed in the latest round of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Palestinian hospital sources said.
Seven Palestinians were killed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into the Rafah refugee camp Wednesday night, Palestinian medical sources told CNN.
Five Israeli soldiers were killed in a convoy attack near Rafah earlier Wednesday, the Israeli military said.
The latest round of violence began Tuesday when Israel launched an operation in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City in what it said was an effort to destroy workshops used to build Qassam rockets. The rockets are often used to attack Israeli targets, including Jewish settlements.
Eight Palestinians were killed in the operation Tuesday and another eight died Wednesday, according to the Israeli military and Palestinian hospital sources.
Six Israel soldiers were killed in the Gaza City operation Tuesday.
Israeli helicopters circled the Zeitoun Wednesday, with two reports of separate missile strikes hours apart. Israel said that on each occasion it was firing at groups of Palestinian militants.
After one attack smoke billowed out of a building and ambulances could be heard racing through the city streets a short time later.
Israeli forces were reportedly withdrawing from Gaza City late Wednesday after recovering body parts of the six soldiers killed Tuesday.
Palestinian sources said militant groups had struck a bodies-for-withdrawal deal with the Israel Defense Forces.
The IDF confirmed it has recovered and identified remains of all six soldiers and said it had enough of the remains to prepare them for burial. But the IDF did not refer to any deal with the militants.
Hamas, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- all labeled terrorist organizations by the U.S. State Department -- had said they were holding remains of the soldiers to use as bargaining chips in negotiations with Israel. The recovery of all body parts is required for a traditional Jewish burial.
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is a military offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The brigades, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas' military wing have carried out deadly attacks on Israeli civilians and military targets.
Five Israelis killed in convoy attack
Following the Gaza City withdrawal, some Israeli military vehicles remained near Rafah, in part to recover the bodies of the four soldiers and one officer killed when a three-vehicle Israeli convoy was attacked earlier Wednesday.
An IDF spokesman told CNN the five died when a rocket-propelled grenade hit their armored vehicle, which was carrying explosives that were to be used to destroy a smuggling tunnel between Gaza and Egypt.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has proposed a complete Israeli military and settlement pullout from Gaza.
His proposal has been praised by President Bush but was voted down in a Likud party referendum May 2.
Sharon has said he is in the process of revising the disengagement plan, which also called for a partial Israeli pullout from the West Bank.
Sharon has said the withdrawal is necessary because the Palestinian Authority had failed to rein in attacks on Israelis and because the diplomatic process is in a "frozen state."
Palestinians have criticized Israel's new plan, charging Sharon is attempting to circumvent the negotiations called for in the road map to Middle East peace, which is supported by the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia
CNN's Matthew Chance contributed to this report.
