OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Thursday that 700,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City since late August, as it presses an air and ground assault on the urban centre.

 

 

Contacted by AFP, the military said that "700,000 Palestinians have evacuated" from Gaza City, in the north, to the south of the Gaza Strip.

 

 

The UN's humanitarian agency, OCHA, on Thursday said that 388,400 displacement movements had been recorded since mid-August, most of them from Gaza City.

 

 

The United Nations estimated at the end of August that around one million people lived in Gaza City and its surroundings, where it has declared a famine.

 

 

Israel launched a major air and ground offensive on the Palestinian territory's main urban hub, in what it says is a bid to root out Hamas after nearly two years of devastating war.

 

 

"Over the past week, strikes in Gaza city have been especially intensive," OCHA said, noting attacks on tents sheltering displaced Palestinians as well as residential buildings and public infrastructure, "with many resulting in high numbers of casualties".

 

 

Gaza's civil defence agency -- a rescue force operating under Hamas authority -- said Israeli strikes on Thursday killed at least 22 people across the territory, including five in Gaza City.

 

 

Media restrictions in the territory and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the details provided by the civil defence or the Israeli military.

 

 

AFP footage from the aftermath of the strike in Al Zawaida camp showed Palestinians digging through the rubble in a search for survivors.

 

 

"The whole place was destroyed and nothing was left fit for human use," said Youssef Younis, a resident.

 

 

Another Al Zawaida resident, Ahmed Abu Dahrouj, said: "Our message is the war must end immediately because we are experiencing an extermination."

 

 

Over nearly two years, Israel's military offensives have killed at least 65,502 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers reliable.