The Israeli military in its order instructed the citizens to immediately leave Rafah and Khan Younis and move to al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip had little to celebrate on Sunday as they began marking the normally festive Eid al-Fitr holiday with rapidly dwindling food supplies and no end in sight to the Israel-Hamas war that has devastated the territory. Dozens held prayers in the yard of demolished school in the southern town of Khan Younis.

The Israeli military said it was expanding the ground operations against the Palestinian jihadists of Hamas in southern Gaza, as well as sustaining its campaign of aerial bombardment of terror targets in the enclave.

Israeli officials are ordering mass evacuations in southern Gaza as part of a "maximum pressure" campaign despite Hamas's agreement to a mediated peace proposal.

Israel has proposed an extended truce in Gaza in exchange for the return of about half the remaining hostages, Israeli officials said on Monday, as the military issued new evacuation orders and said "intense operations" were planned in the south of the enclave.

The bodies of more than a dozen aid workers have been recovered in southern Gaza from what a United Nations agency described as a “mass grave,” a week after they went missing following attacks by Israeli forces.

More than a dozen aid workers have been killed or gone missing in Gaza over the past few days, several groups say, as Israel’s complete blockade of humanitarian aid neared the one-month mark amid its renewed military assault on the Palestinian enclave.

When Israel unleashed a wave of bombardment this week, shattering Gaza's ceasefire, a hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis was overwhelmed with wounded children.