Israel expands ground offensive to entire Gaza Strip - 'dividing it into three'
The Israeli military has said its ground offensive is expanding to every part of Gaza as its campaign to oust Hamas continues.
Tanks have cut off the road between Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, effectively dividing the Gaza Strip into three, the Reuters news agency reported on Monday.
Follow live: Military operations 'almost complete' in north of Gaza
It suggests Israel's planned ground offensive in the enclave's refugee-crowded south has begun.
People in Gaza had feared an Israeli ground offensive on southern areas was imminent.
Residents said they heard airstrikes and explosions in and around Khan Younis overnight and into Monday after the military dropped leaflets warning people to relocate further south towards the border with Egypt.
Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters in Tel Aviv: "The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) continues to extend its ground operation against Hamas centres in all of the Gaza Strip."
'Tight-knit pack of mums and children' in danger from strikes
James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, the United Nations Children's Fund, posted a voice note from Khan Younis on social media, saying it had been a night of "utterly relentless bombardments".
The sound of apparent strikes could be heard in the background.
He said that while he had no "military expertise", such was the "tight-knit pack of mums and children and families" in Gaza that he couldn't see how "everything that's blasted off" would not "almost hit something" or "someone".
On Monday morning, the IDF issued new orders to people in around 20 areas of southern Gaza to evacuate.
It posted a map on the social media website X with arrows pointing to areas civilians should head to.
Many people in and around Khan Younis in the south have come from the north, after an Israeli order to move south earlier in the conflict, and are having to move yet again.
'No safe areas' as Israel ramps up attacks
The Gaza Strip has effectively become a battlefield from the north to the south, with Lebanon-based Hamas official Osama Hamdan saying: "There are no safe areas."
Israel government spokesperson Eylon Levy said the military had struck more than 400 targets over the weekend "including extensive aerial attacks in the Khan Younis area" and had also killed Hamas militants and destroyed their infrastructure in Beit Lahiya in the north.
The ground offensive has transformed much of the north, including large parts of Gaza City, into a rubble-strewn wasteland.
Hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge in the south, which could meet the same fate.
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The expanded offensive follows the collapse of a week-long ceasefire and is aimed at eliminating Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose attack on Israel almost two months ago has triggered the deadliest Israeli-Palestinian violence in decades.
On 7 October, 1,200 Israelis were killed and 240 more were abducted and taken into Gaza as hostages. More than 75 have now been released as part of a now-expired ceasefire.
The Hamas-led Gaza health ministry says more than 15,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since 7 October - and says 70% of fatalities are women and children.
The war has also displaced more than three-quarters of the territory's population of 2.3 million Palestinians, who are running out of safe places to go.
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Up to two million people told to move to barren wilderness
Under the Israeli plan to ensure people move as safely as possible, they have divided Gaza into numbered blocks, and people living there, in theory, will be told when to move before bombings begin.
The Israel Defence Forces has said up to two million people should move to al Mawasi - a Bedouin settlement in the bottom southern corner of the Gaza Strip. It is a barren wilderness 1km wide and 14km long.
A Sky News team went there three days ago and found no aid, no agency tents, no food kitchens.
When questioned why there were no UN facilities there, Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Sky News that "political reasons" prevented them from meeting the people heading there.
He said: "The UN has been very negligent, because we have been giving these zones to the UN for days now, and yet their policy is... they can't put humanitarian aid there because people haven't moved there.
"Now that people have moved there, maybe they will start.
"They can't be seen, they say, to be partnering with Israel in our war efforts.
"So, fine, they had to wait until now. Now, unfortunately, at the very last moment, I hope they will move their humanitarian effort to these places. It's only a pity and very sad they haven't done so until now."
Leaflets have also been dropped with a QR code linked to an interactive map with the numbered districts marked on it.
But UN officials and people in Gaza say it is difficult to heed these orders in real-time given patchy internet access and unreliable electricity.
The Sky News teams in Gaza met Muhamed Rayis holding the leaflet with the QR code on it.
He says he followed the instructions, moved to a safe area, and then got bombed.
Mr Regev responded: "I would be very cautious with that sort of information, because everyone who lives in parts of Gaza still controlled by Hamas cannot speak out freely... so of course it will all be Israel's fault."
