Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are being told to immediately leave Gaza City, as the Israeli military's campaign to take over and occupy the area intensifies by the hour.
But despite the grave danger faced by civilians in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) pursuit of claimed Hamas fighters and facilities, many are refusing to move — citing fatigue from multiple displacements in recent months and fears a so-called "humanitarian zone" is far from safe.
Over the weekend the IDF issued a new map of an expanded area near the Mawasi camp, where it was encouraging Palestinians to move.
But despite labelling it as a safe area for people, much of the area has been subject to Israeli evacuation orders for months.
In a tent camp lining the beach in Gaza City, displaced Palestinians feared moving was both inevitable and ineffectual.
"Nowhere is safe — also the south, our situation is like theirs, but they say it's a humanitarian area, but people do not want to go there," Nizar Mohammad, 32, originally from the Jabalia refugee camp, told the ABC.
"It is in the hands of God, you hear about shelling and threats and what not, but it is bit better than being in the north."
Ahmad Awwad, also from the Jabalia camp, questioned how the declared "humanitarian zone" could accommodate all of the population of Gaza City.
"There is no option, if you are in danger and your kids are in danger, will you remain and stay and say I am not leaving?" he said.
"We will leave, for sure we will leave, if there is an exodus, there is no other choice."
Others were not convinced.
"I will remain here, God willing, because there is no place in the south. The south is full," Suheil Dheir said.
"Yesterday there was shelling in the south, they hit the civil guard, they hit the journalists, everywhere is targeted, both the north and the south are targeted.
"If I fled or if I was forced to leave in an extreme situation, I would leave without anything — only me and my children.
Israel targets high rises
Over the weekend, Israel's offensive in Gaza City reached a new and dangerous point with the destruction of three high-rise apartment blocks.
The IDF issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes, saying the buildings were being used by Hamas and sat above underground tunnel networks. One building, the IDF claimed, had been rigged with explosives.
No evidence to back up the assessments was provided.
Leaflets have been dropped from Israeli military aircraft outlining where the new humanitarian zone is.
"On a personal level, I will be going from this place of displacement straight to paradise," 28-year-old Fidaa Saha said.
"I am not going south even if they drop pamphlets.
"If God decided that your destiny is to die, you will die, and if it is to live, you live."
Thousands have left Gaza City
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said more than 100,000 Palestinians had heeded the call to leave Gaza City.
"We are destroying terror infrastructures, we are destroying incriminated terror towers and we have set up another humanitarian area to allow the civilian population in Gaza to leave for a safe place and receive humanitarian aid there," he told a meeting of Israeli ministers in an undisclosed location in Israel.
"About 100,000 people have left Gaza [City] so far.
"Hamas is trying to do everything so they won't leave, so they would stay there and act as a human shield for it."
Mr Netanyahu conceded that Israel was paying a high diplomatic price for its ongoing offensive in Gaza, adding that it was losing the "propaganda" battle around the world.
While it was a moment of political clarity from the prime minister, it was not coupled with any responsibility for the dire humanitarian crisis in the strip.
"If I need to choose between victory over our enemies and negative propaganda against us — I choose victory over our enemies rather than the opposite," Mr Netanyahu said.
That relentless pursuit for victory is coming at an ever increasingly high cost — with more than 64,000 Palestinians killed during the course of the war, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza.
The figures do not differentiate between civilians and Hamas fighters, but they do include many thousands of women and children caught in Israeli attacks.
On Sunday, the ministry said another 31 Palestinians had been killed trying to access aid in the strip and five had died from malnutrition — three of them children.
Families of Israeli captives still held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group have accused Mr Netanyahu of pursuing the war rather than trying to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal.
There are 48 hostages in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to be alive.
Many of their supporters fear the expanded Gaza City offensive will threaten those still living, and have urged the Israeli government to reach an agreement to halt the hostilities.
Danish foreign minister calls for end of war
In Jerusalem, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen met with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Sa'ar.
"It goes without saying that we demand that all Israelis hostages in Gaza are released immediately, and we have said that frequently, and from day one, also that Israel has a right to self-defence," Mr Rasmussen said.
"But it doesn't change the fact that we are extremely concerned about the humanitarian disaster in Gaza, and that's why I used the opportunity today to repeat our calls for Israel to stop the military offensive in Gaza, to ensure immediate and unhindered humanitarian assistance."
Mr Rasmussen also met with Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa in Ramallah.
"I also expressed our deep concern by the expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and I reiterated Denmark's offer to help assisting with the treatment of patients from Gaza in East Jerusalem or the West Bank," the Danish foreign minister said standing alongside Mr Sa'ar.
Israel's foreign minister claimed the humanitarian situation in Gaza had improved dramatically, despite most international aid and medical agencies continuing to sound the alarm over the dire situation in the strip.
"With regards to the humanitarian situation as a whole, there is a big change on the ground," Mr Sa'ar said.
"It's not something that you can find in Western media, but the facts are, we … fulfilled all our understandings with the EU on the matter, and more than that after we also started with the humanitarian corridors policy and air drops, huge quantities entered to Gaza Strip and that was reflected in the decline, the dramatic decline of the prices of products."
