THE Israeli military ordered the evacuation Monday of part of a crowded area in the Gaza Strip it had designated a humanitarian zone, saying it is planning an operation against Hamas militants there.

New figures show the rising official Palestinian death toll of at least 39,000.

Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israel’s deadly air and ground campaign.

“We do not know where we are walking,” said Kholoud al-Dadas, as she clutched her children. 

She said: “This is our seventh or eighth time we have been displaced. While we were sleeping in our homes, they started shooting at us, bombing from everywhere.” Moments later, she collapsed in exhaustion.

The Israeli military said that it is planning to begin an operation against Hamas who it claims have embedded themselves in the area and used it to launch rockets toward Israel. 

The area includes the eastern part of the Muwasi humanitarian zone in the southern Gaza Strip.

Earlier this month, Israel estimated at least 1.8 million Palestinians are now in the humanitarian zone it declared, covering about 8.6 miles along the Mediterranean. That’s the bulk of Gaza’s 2.3m population.

Much of the area is blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, United Nations and humanitarian groups say. Families live amid mountains of rubbish and streams contaminated by sewage.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the toll from Israel’s nine-month war against Gaza has surpassed 39,000 Palestinians killed and 89,800 wounded. 

A report from the respected medical journal The Lancet recently said the number of Palestinians killed by the Israelis could be in excess of 186,000.

The fighting was sparked after an assault by Hamas militants on southern Israel on October 7 that killed 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took about 250 hostages.

About 120 remain held, about a third of them believed to be dead, according to Israeli authorities.

Delicate negotiations are continuing with the aim of achieving a ceasefire and hostage release. A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said. 

Mr Netanyahu left today for the US to meet with President Joe Biden and to address Congress. 

Mr Netanyahu insisted that regardless of who becomes the next US president, “our enemies must know that Israel and the US stand together tomorrow and always.”