Palestinians were moving out of Shejaia suburb of Gaza City on Thursday (April 3) after Israeli strikes and previous evacuation orders from the Israeli army.

One of the people fleeing, 62-year-old Umm Aaed Bardaa, said that 25 members of her family were moving with no clear destination.

“We don’t know where to go,” she said.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in the Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. 

Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say. - report from Reuters