CAIRO/GAZA — 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 (July 18), 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.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to address the US Congress next week, made a surprise visit to Israeli troops in the area around Rafah, telling them that military pressure combined with a demand to bring back 120 hostages still held in Gaza was producing results.

"This double pressure is not delaying the deal, it is advancing it," he said, according to a statement from his office.

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 Oct 7 attack in southern Israel that triggered the Gaza war.

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