Israeli forces pressed ahead with their air and ground bombardment of the southern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, even as the United States and the United Nations repeatedly urged them to protect civilians.
Israel's closest ally the United States has said the Israeli offensive in the south should not repeat the massive civilian toll it has had in the north.
But residents and journalists on the ground said the intense Israeli air strikes in the south of the densely populated coastal enclave included areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter.
At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel to avoid further action that would make the already dire humanitarian situation in Hamas-run Gaza worse and to spare civilians from more suffering.
"The Secretary-General is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas... For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on," U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Israel largely captured the northern half of Gaza in November, and since a week-long truce collapsed on Friday they have swiftly pushed deep into the southern half. Hamas said its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli soldiers north and east of Khan Younis, Gaza's main southern city.
Israeli tanks have driven into Gaza across the border and cut off the main north-south route, residents said.
The Israeli military said the central road out of Khan Younis to the north "constitutes a battlefield" and was now shut.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian Refugees in Gaza (UNRWA), said the resumption of Israel's military operation was repeating "horrors from past weeks" by displacing people who had been previously displaced, overcrowding hospitals and further strangling the humanitarian operation due to limited supplies.
"The evacuation order pushes people to concentrate on what is less than one-third of the Gaza Strip.
They need everything: food, water, shelter, and mostly safety. Roads to the south are clogged," Lazzarini said.
'NO PLACE SAFE'
As many as 80% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have already fled their homes in the eight weeks of war that has turned the enclave into a wasteland. On Monday, Israel ordered Palestinians to leave parts of Khan Younis, indicating they should move towards the Mediterranean coast and Rafah, a major town near the Egyptian border.
Desperate Gazans in Khan Younis packed their belongings and headed towards Rafah. Most were on foot, walking past ruined buildings in a solemn and silent procession.
Lazzarini said the order to evacuate to safer places did not ensure protection for civilians.
"We have said it repeatedly. We are saying it again. No place is safe in Gaza, whether in the south, or the southwest, whether in Rafah or any unilaterally so-called 'safe zone'," he said.
In Washington, officials said it was too early to definitively say whether Israel was following U.S. advice to take concrete steps to ensure protections for civilians, although a State Department spokesperson said it was an "improvement" that Israel was seeking evacuations in targeted areas as opposed to entire cities.
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