Israeli military hunts Hamas in Gaza tunnels as growing number of Palestinians flee on foot

Thousands of Palestinian civilians trudged out of the north of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday seeking refuge from Israeli air strikes and fierce ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas militants.

The procession took place in a four-hour window of opportunity announced by Israel, which has told residents to evacuate the area or risk being trapped in the violence.

However, the central and southern parts of the small, besieged Palestinian enclave were also under fire as the war between its Islamist Hamas rulers and Israel entered its second month.

Palestinian health officials said an air strike that hit houses in Nusseirat refugee camp killed 18 people on Wednesday morning. In Khan Younis, six people, including a young girl, were killed in an airstrike.

"We were sitting in peace when all of a sudden an F16 airstrike landed on a house and blew it up, the entire block, three houses next to each other," said a witness, Mohammed Abu Daqa.

"Civilians, all of them civilians. An old woman, an old man and there are others still missing under the rubble."

The Israeli military said its offensive was targeting Hamas's tunnel network beneath the enclave. Airstrikes had killed Mahsein Abu Zina, a Hamas weapons maker, and several fighters.

Palestinian media reported clashes between militants and Israeli forces near al-Shati (Beach) refugee camp in Gaza City. Hamas's armed wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said its fighters had destroyed an Israeli tank in Gaza City.

Reuters was unable to verify the battlefield claims of either side.

Israel has pounded Gaza from the air and used ground troops to divide the narrow coastal strip in two, following the Hamas raid on southern Israel on Oct. 7, when gunmen killed 1,400 people, including several Canadians, and took some 240 hostages.

After days of delay for many Canadians in Gaza, dozens are expected to leave Gaza through the Rafah border with Egypt for a second consecutive day.

The Israeli bombardment has killed more than 10,568 Palestinians, around 40 per cent of them children, over the past month, according to counts by health officials in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The level of death and suffering is "hard to fathom," UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.

"Every day, you think it is the worst day and then the next day is worse," Lindmeier said, quoting a colleague in Gaza.