Israel strikes central Gaza refugee camps as tanks advance in Rafah

Israeli forces bombarded the Gaza Strip’s historic refugee camps in the centre of the enclave and struck Gaza City in the north on July 18, killing at least 13 people, and tanks pushed deeper into Rafah in the south.

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One Israeli air strike killed six people in Al-Zawayda in central Gaza, and two others were killed in a strike on a house in Bureij camp.

Another air strike killed three people inside a car in Deir al-Balah, a city packed with people displaced from elsewhere in Gaza.

In Gaza City in the north, medics said two Palestinians were killed in yet another air strike.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its forces killed two senior Islamic Jihad commanders in two air strikes in Gaza City, including one whom it said took part in the Oct 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

In Rafah, residents said Israeli tanks advanced deeper into the western side of the city and took positions on a hilltop there. The Israeli military said forces located several tunnels and killed several gunmen.

The armed wing of Palestinian militant group Hamas and its allies said they fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces in south-west Rafah on July 18.

More than a million people sought shelter in Rafah from fighting further north, but most have scattered again since Israel launched an offensive in and around the city in May.