Israel has warned all residents of Gaza City to leave immediately in anticipation of a huge ground offensive.
The military’s Arabic spokesman told as many as one million Palestinians living in Gaza’s biggest urban centre to evacuate southwards.
“Remaining in the area is extremely dangerous,” he said.
On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said air strikes that had destroyed high-rise buildings in Gaza City in recent days were “only the beginning of the main, intensive operation” to capture what he has described as Hamas’s last important stronghold.
Hamas said his remarks amounted to a “public demonstration of a fully-fledged crime of forced displacement”.
Israel’s plan to conquer Gaza City has also brought international criticism.
The UN has warned that an intensification of the offensive in an area where a famine has already been declared will push civilians into an “even deeper catastrophe”.
The message from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) – both in leaflets dropped over Gaza City, and posted on social media by its Arabic spokesman Col. Avichay Adraee, was unequivocal.
“To all residents and those present in Gaza City and all its areas, from the Old City and the Tuffah area in the east to the sea in the west: The IDF is determined to defeat Hamas and will operate in Gaza City with great determination, as it has throughout the Gaza Strip,” it said.
“For your safety, evacuate immediately,” it added.
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Israel’s security cabinet approved a plan to conquer all of Gaza after indirect talks with Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal broke down in July.
The IDF has been told to defeat Hamas after 23 months of war and return the 48 hostages still held by the armed group, of whom 20 are still believed to be alive.
In recent weeks, Israeli air and ground attacks on Gaza City have been intensifying.
Overnight, there were further air strikes on buildings the IDF said were being used by Hamas to launch attacks against its troops.
Netanyahu said in a video on Monday afternoon that 50 high-rises had been destroyed in Gaza over the previous two days.
“Now, all of this is only the introduction, only the beginning of the main intensive operation – the ground incursion of our forces,” he added.
“Therefore, I am taking this opportunity to say to the residents of Gaza, listen to me carefully: You have been warned: get out of there!”
Hamas said Netanyahu’s remarks were “a public demonstration of a fully-fledged crime of forced displacement, carried out under the weight of bombing, massacres, starvation, and death threats”.
Photographs showed a stream of people moving south along the coastal road from Gaza City on foot, on donkey carts, and in vehicles on Tuesday, but there was no sign of a mass exodus.
