Israeli army F-16 warplanes Wednesday destroyed the main Gaza cemetery in northern Gaza City's Sheik Radwan neighborhood, local residents said.

"The Israeli warplanes are not only targeting people alive, but they also destroy the graves of the dead," said Na'eem Abu Sh'aban, a resident of the neighborhood living near the cemetery.

He added that several graves were destroyed and right after the airstrike and the residents went to the cemetery to help collect the bones of the dead.

However, other residents who said in condition of anonymity that Gaza militants launched homemade rockets from inside the cemetery at Israeli towns in southern Israel over the past few days.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, emergency chief said on Wednesday morning that 977 Palestinians have been killed and 4500 others wounded since the beginning of the Israeli war on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip since Dec. 27, 2008.

In the Gaza City, there are three main cemeteries and one has been seized by the Israeli army during the ongoing ground operation starting on Jan. 3.

The second cemeteries in Gaza City lie in the Palestine square, and the third Sheikh Radwan in northern Gaza City was hit by missiles earlier Wednesday morning.

Gaza residents said that there is no enough place to bury those who were killed in the Israeli airstrikes and tanks shelling, adding that many were buried into graves and their bodies were laid on the bones of people died over the past few years.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2009)