Palestinians are fleeing an eastern Gaza City neighbourhood that has come under heavy bombardment from the Israeli military who issued an evacuation order for the area it had previously declared clear.
The Israeli assault in the northern Gaza Strip's Shujaiya district, which witnesses and medics said caused numerous casualties, comes as fears grow of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces also killed three civil defence team members and injured several others while they were working in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Thursday night.
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to Washington to discuss the Gaza crisis, said Israel did not want war but warned fighting on a massive scale would send Lebanon "back to the Stone Age".
In Gaza, fighting has continued despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the "intense phase" of the war - now nearing its 10th month - was winding down.
