Israel's military has ordered the evacuation of part of an area in the Gaza Strip it has designated a humanitarian zone.
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The military says it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas militants who have embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets toward Israel.
The area includes the eastern part of the Muwasi humanitarian zone, which is located in the southern Gaza Strip.
On Monday morning, thousands of Palestinians carrying backpacks and children walked down dusty roads under the scorching summer sun, navigating dilapidated cars filled with belongings tied on top.
Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel'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, as she continued on her way, Al Dadas collapsed in exhaustion and people rushed to her aid.
Earlier in July, Israel estimated at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared covering a stretch of about 14km 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 garbage and streams contaminated by sewage.
The evacuation order came during delicate negotiations seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, with US and Israeli officials expressing hope an agreement is closer than ever.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left on Monday morning on a much-anticipated trip to the US to meet with President Joe Biden, who announced on Sunday that he will not seek another term, and address Congress.
A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Netanyahu's office said.
Netanyahu said 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 Biden for more than 40 years of friendship, while also pushing him for more support on certain issues.
The Israeli military said on Monday 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 body count by an Associated Press journalist.
Also on Monday, Israeli police said a Canadian citizen was killed after threatening Israeli security forces with a knife near the Gaza border.
The war in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, according to the territory's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.
The war began with an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.
Some 120 remain held, with about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.
The Israeli military announced the deaths on Monday of two additional Israeli hostages, saying they believe Yagev Buchshtab, 35, and Alex Dancyg, 76, were no longer alive, based on intelligence.
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. Israel's military said soldiers would be vaccinated and it would work with organisations to bring in vaccines for Palestinians.
Australian Associated Press
