Israeli airstrikes in Gaza have killed dozens of people and advancing Israeli army tanks in Gaza City have also forced residents to flee under fire, Palestinian officials said.
On Tuesday, an airstrike hit tents of displaced families outside a school in the town of Abassan, east of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, killing at least 29 people, most of them women and children, Palestinian medical officials said.
The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of the Gaza Government Press Office, said dozens more people were killed in other Israeli strikes in central Gaza. At least 60 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday, he said.
Residents of the enclave said Israeli tanks that entered the Tal al-Hawa, Shujayea and Sabra neighborhoods of Gaza City shelled roads and buildings, forcing them to flee their homes.
This was followed by Israeli military orders to evacuate several districts in the east and west of Gaza City, posted on social media, including those neighborhoods.
“We hold the occupation and the US administration responsible for the horrific massacres against civilians,” al-Thawabta said in a statement.
In Gaza City, the armed wings of Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad said their fighters battled Israeli forces with machine gun fire, mortar fire and anti-tank missiles, killing and wounding Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli military has not commented on the casualties but said its soldiers were engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Hamas fighters.
The intense fighting comes as CIA Director William Burns and Israeli Mossad chief David Barnea prepare to travel to Qatar on Wednesday, after Burns held talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo, seeking to push for a ceasefire in Gaza.
But Israel's renewed attack has threatened talks at a crucial moment and could send negotiations “back to square one,” Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was quoted as saying on Monday.
On Tuesday, videos on social media showed families piled onto donkey carts and the backs of trucks loaded with mattresses and other belongings making their way through the streets of Gaza City to flee areas under Israeli evacuation orders.
“Gaza City is being razed to the ground. This is what is happening. Israel is forcing us to leave our homes under enemy fire,” Um Tamer, a mother of seven, told Reuters via a chat app. She said it was the seventh time her family had fled their home in Gaza City, in the north of the enclave and one of Israel’s first targets at the start of the war in October.
“We can't take it anymore, enough of death and humiliation. Let's end the war now,” he said.
The UN human rights office said it was “appalled” by the way civilians, many of whom have been displaced multiple times, have been ordered to go to areas where “military operations are taking place and where civilians continue to be killed and injured”.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said all its medical clinics were out of service in Gaza City due to Israeli evacuation orders that have forced thousands of people to move west, the Mediterranean and the south.
Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said on social media platform X that “the closure of these vital medical facilities exacerbates an already dire healthcare system.”
“These clinics and medical posts are often the only livelihood for many civilians.”
At least 38,243 people have been killed and 88,243 wounded in Israel's war on Gaza since October. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is estimated at 1,139, and dozens of people remain captive in Gaza.
