The Israeli military has ordered the evacuation of part of an area in the Gaza Strip it has designated a humanitarian zone, as the Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll from the conflict has passed 39,000.
The military said it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas militants who have embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets towards Israel.
The area includes the eastern part of the Muwasi humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Monday morning, thousands of Palestinians carrying backpacks and children walked down dusty roads under the summer sun, navigating dilapidated cars with belongings tied on top. Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israeli’s punishing air and ground campaign.
“We do not know where we are walking,” said Kholoud Al Dadas, as she clutched her children. “This is our seventh or eighth time we have been displaced.
“While we were sleeping in our homes, they started shooting at us, bombing from everywhere.”
Moments later, she collapsed in exhaustion and people rushed to her aid.
Earlier this month, Israel estimated at least 1.8 million Palestinians were in the humanitarian zone it declared covering a stretch of about 8.6 miles along the Mediterranean.
Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, UN and humanitarian groups say. Families live in the midst of mountains of waste and streams contaminated by sewage.
The announcement came during delicate negotiations seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, with US and Israeli officials expressing hope that an agreement is closer than ever, and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off on a much-anticipated trip to the US to meet President Joe Biden and address Congress.
A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu’s office said. Egypt, Qatar and the US are continuing to push Israel and Hamas towards a phased ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting and free Israeli hostages.
Mr Netanyahu said that regardless of who becomes the next US president, “our enemies must know that Israel and the United States stand together tomorrow and always”. He said he will thank Mr Biden for more than 40 years of friendship, while also pushing him for more support on certain issues.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people and wounded over 89,800, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
About 120 are still being held, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
The Israeli military announced the deaths on Monday of two more Israeli hostages, saying they believe Yagev Buchshtab, 35, and Alex Dancyg, 76, who were kidnapped on October 7, were no longer alive, based on intelligence.
The Israeli military said on Monday that it is continuing to operate in central and southern Gaza. One person was killed and three injured in a strike outside the Al Aqsa hospital in the central city of Deir-Al-Balah.
Overnight, at least 15 people, including four women and six children, were killed in strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to hospital officials and a count by an Associated Press journalist.
The UN accused Israel of targeting a UN humanitarian convoy in central Gaza. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the main UN group supporting Palestinians in Gaza, said Israel shot at a convoy near an Israeli military checkpoint on Sunday, and that five bullets pierced the clearly marked armoured UN vehicle.
Mr Lazzarini said the convoy movement had been co-ordinated with Israeli forces. No one was injured in the incident, but he condemned the military for targeting humanitarian workers.
The already precarious humanitarian conditions inside besieged Gaza have worsened with the discovery of the polio virus as water and sanitation services have deteriorated for the territory’s 2.3 million people, most of them displaced.
Traces of the virus were found in sewage samples in Gaza. The World Health Organisation says no one has been treated for symptoms caused by the disease.
Israel’s military said soldiers would be vaccinated and it would work with organisations to bring in vaccines for Palestinians.
Mr Netanyahu has vowed to wipe out Hamas’s military and governing capabilities and secure the return of the remaining hostages.
Families of hostages and thousands of other Israelis have held weekly demonstrations to urge the prime minister to reach a ceasefire that would bring their loved ones home.
