Israeli forces bombard refugee camps in Gaza

Cairo/Gaza, July 18

Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on Thursday, killing at least 21 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south, health officials and residents said.

A barrage of Israeli airstrikes killed 16 in Zawayda town, Bureij and Nuseirat camps and the overcrowded city of Deir-Al-Balah, the last major urban centre in Gaza not to be invaded by Israeli forces, health officials said.

In Gaza City in the north, medics said five Palestinians were killed in two separate strikes. The Israeli military said in a statement its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two airstrikes in Gaza City, including one whom it said had taken part in the October 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

The Israeli military said forces located several tunnels and killed several gunmen.

Islamic Jihad said it fired missiles at two southern Israeli communities on Thursday and the armed wing of Hamas said it fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces in southwest Rafah. — Reuters

Netanyahu makes surprise gaza visit

Jerusalem: Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu made a surprise visit to troops in southern Gaza on Thursday, his office said. His visit to Rafah was announced hours after Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, a move that could disrupt the Gaza cease-fire talks. AP