The Israeli army ordered people in south and central Gaza areas it had previously designated humanitarian safe zones to leave on Friday, saying Hamas had used the areas to fire mortars and rockets at Israel.
Residents in Deir al-Balah, an area still not entered by Israeli forces since the Gaza war began more than 10 months ago, said shelling had intensified and tanks had crossed a perimeter fence into the city.
Israel said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah and another area north of the city of Khan Younis, where tens of thousands of people have sought shelter from fighting in other parts of Gaza.
“The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone,” the military said in a statement.
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Social media and Palestinian news footage showed hundreds of families streaming out of Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis on donkey carts, rickshaws and other vehicles laden with salvaged belongings.
Commenting on the new evacuation order, Unrwa, the main UN agency in Gaza, said people “remain trapped in an endless nightmare of death and destruction on a staggering scale”.
Earlier, Israel’s military said it had hit an area in Khan Younis from where rockets were fired towards the community of Kissufim on Thursday, finding weapons including shoulder-fired missiles and explosives.
Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 17 Palestinians on Friday.
The latest evacuation warnings came as negotiators in Doha ended two days of talks aimed at reaching a deal to halt the fighting in Gaza and bring Israeli and foreign hostages home. Talks will resume next week, they said.
US president Joe Biden said on Friday “we are closer than we’ve ever been” to a ceasefire in Gaza. “I don’t want to jinx anything... we may have something. But we’re not there yet,” he told reporters in the White House.
“It’s much, much closer than it was three days ago. So, keep your fingers crossed.”
A joint statement from Egypt, Qatar and the United States said that the US had presented on Friday a ceasefire proposal that closed the remaining gaps in a manner that allowed for the rapid implementation of an agreement, and was consistent with the principles set out by Mr Biden in proposals he made at the end of May.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will travel to Israel on Saturday to continue the diplomatic efforts to conclude a deal for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, the state department said.
Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population has been displaced multiple times since the start of the Israeli campaign in Gaza, launched following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7th. Even in areas designated safe zones there have been regular reports of casualties from Israeli strikes.
Israel accuses Hamas and other militant groups of deliberately basing fighters in civilian areas, a charge Hamas denies. The fighting has in any case become more scattered and less organised as Hamas has shifted towards guerrilla-style tactics by small groups of fighters.
Hamas’s October 7th rampage killed about 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies. The assault on Gaza has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Palestinian health authorities.
Israel says it has eliminated 17,000 Hamas fighters. – Reuters
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