The situation for ordinary people in Gaza - a densely populated enclave 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and fenced off from Israel and Egypt at its borders - is "getting worse by the hour", according to United Nations aid agencies.
Israel warned civilians to evacuate the area of Gaza north of the Wadi Gaza riverbed, ahead of its invasion.
The evacuation area included Gaza City - which was the most densely populated area of the Gaza Strip. The Erez border crossing into Israel in the north is closed, so those living in the evacuation zone had no choice but to head towards the southern districts.
According to the UN, just over 75% of Gaza's population - some 1.7 million people - were already registered refugees before Israel warned Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.
Palestinian refugees are defined by the UN as people whose "place of residence was Palestine during the period 1 June 1946 to 15 May 1948, and who lost both home and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 War".
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are now focusing its operations on southern Gaza and
have told Palestinians that even Khan Younis - the largest urban area in the south - is not safe and they should move south, or further west to a so-called
"safe area" at al-Mawasi, a thin strip of mainly agricultural land along the Mediterranean coast, close to the Egyptian border.
Fighting in Khan Younis h
as pushed tens of thousands of people to flee to the southern district of Rafah in recent days, the UN said.
The IDF has produced a map splitting Gaza into small, numbered blocks and issues warnings to clusters of blocks at a time telling people to evacuate them for their own safety.
According to the UN, just over 75% of Gaza's population - some 1.7 million people - were already registered refugees before Israel warned Palestinians to leave northern Gaza.
The IDF has produced
a map splitting Gaza into small, numbered blocks and issues warnings to clusters of blocks at a time
telling people to evacuate them for their own safety.
Israel has already launched hundreds of airstrikes across Gaza and says it has used more than 10,000 bombs and missiles, causing extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure. Gazan officials say more than 50% of housing units in Gaza have been destroyed, left uninhabitable or damaged since the start of the conflict.
Even healthcare facilities have been left unable to function as a result of bomb damage or lack of fuel.
The UN says hospital capacity in the enclave has more than halved from 3,500 beds before 7 October to about 1,500 now - and
"hardly any" in the north.
More than 1,200 Israelis and foreign nationals were killed during the Hamas attacks on 7 October. More than 18,000 Palestinians - including about 7,700 children - have been killed in Israeli airstrikes and operations since then, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.
The airstrikes were accompanied by a
"complete siege" of Gaza by Israel, with electricity, food and fuel supplies cut, followed by military action on the ground.
The IDF began its ground operations by moving into Gaza from the north west along the coast and into the north east near Beit Hanoun. A few days later Israeli forces cut across the middle of the territory to the south of Gaza City.
Armoured bulldozers created routes for tanks and troops, as the Israeli forces tried to clear the area of Hamas fighters based in northern Gaza.
Having cut Gaza in two, the Israelis pushed further into Gaza City, where they faced some resistance from Hamas.
(See
'Left nothing in its place': Palestinians appalled by Israeli razing of Gaza cemeteries)
Even before the current conflict, about 80% of the population of Gaza was in need of humanitarian aid, and although Israel has been allowing some aid in from Egypt, aid agencies said it was nowhere near enough.
Meanwhile, the WHO has warned that renewed fighting is making the distribution of aid in most of Gaza
"almost impossible" and will
"only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis" that already threatens to overwhelm civilians."
A photo of the same beach from last summer shows people making the most of a hot day in Gaza, families splashing in the sea or sitting on fanning out along the beach.
Satellite imagery and video footage show the Israeli military turning gravesites into ruins
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Find out how much has changed in the Gaza Strip since Israel began its military response to Hamas's attacks on 7 October.
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