Israeli tanks battered areas around two hospitals in Gaza's main southern city Khan Younis on Thursday, forcing displaced people into a new desperate scramble for safety, residents said, in an escalating offensive Israel says is targeting Hamas fighters.
In Gaza City in the north of the embattled enclave, 20 Palestinians were killed and 150 injured when were hit by an Israeli strike while queuing to collect food aid, said Ashraf al-Qidra, spokesperson for Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
Gaza health officials said at least 50 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours in Khan Younis, where Israel has shifted full-blown military operations after starting to pull forces out of northern areas it says it now largely controls.
Most of the Gaza Strip's 2.3 million population is now squeezed into Khan Younis and towns just north and south of it, after being driven out of its northern half earlier in Israel's military campaign, now in its fourth month.
At least 25,700 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated places, Palestinian health officials say, with large tracts of the heavily built-up enclave flattened by bombing.
Khan Younis is encircled by Israeli armoured forces and under almost non-stop aerial and ground fire, residents said, and a huge mushroom-like column of smoke billowed skyward from areas of Israeli military operations on Thursday.
Palestinian medics said Israeli tanks had cut off and were shelling targets around the city's two main still-functioning hospitals, Nasser and Al-Amal, trapping medical teams, patients and displaced people huddled inside or nearby.
Israel says Hamas fighters use hospital premises as cover for bases, something the group and medical staff deny.
The Israeli army's siege of Khan Younis' main hospitals, in what it calls an escalating campaign to eliminate fighters in Hamas' main south Gaza bastion, has made it near impossible for rescue crews to reach the wounded or collect the dead.
Al-Qidra said Nasser Hospital was running at only 10% of capacity in "harsh and frightening conditions," having run out of food, pain killers and anaesthetics.
The United Nations said another 12 people were killed on Wednesday when two tank shells struck a UN building sheltering 800 people in Khan Yunis, updating its previous toll of nine dead.
Israel said Hamas had "command and control centres" in the vicinity, which it described as "a dense area" with civilians and several hospitals where it said fighters were active.
On Thursday, tens of thousands of homeless people sheltering in the compound prepared to flee to Rafah, 15km away on Gaza's southern edge, after Israeli tank forces nearby ordered all civilians inside to leave, UN officials said.
The Unicef projects that over the coming weeks over 10,000 children in Gaza risk wasting, one of the most serious results of malnutrition, which can stunt physical growth and brain development.
