Palestinians flee as Israeli troops, warplanes strike north Gaza

Palestinians fled eastern Gaza City on Thursday under heavy bombardment as the Israeli military issued an evacuation order for the area it had previously declared clear of Hamas militants.

The flare-up in the northern Gaza Strip's Shujaiya district, which witnesses and medics said caused numerous casualties, comes as fears grow of a wider regional conflagration involving Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah, a Hamas ally.

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on a visit to Washington to discuss the Gaza crisis and ways to avoid broader conflict in the Middle East, said Israel did not want war but warned fighting on a massive scale would send Lebanon "back to the Stone Age".

In Gaza, fighting has ground on despite comments Sunday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the "intense phase" of the war — now nearing its 10th month — was winding down.

Officials and medics in the Hamas-run territory said Israeli strikes overnight and early Thursday killed at least six people in northern Gaza, and the Israeli military said it had "attacked terrorists" in Khan Yunis", in the south.

In Gaza City, a witness in Shujaiya who declined to be named told AFP the situation was "frightening" as Israeli military vehicles approached amid air strikes and shelling.

"Residents are running through the streets in terror... wounded and martyrs lie in the streets."

The military's Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, told residents and displaced Gazans in the Shujaiya area to leave "for your safety", in a message posted on social media.

They were asked to head south, to a declared "humanitarian zone" about 25 kilometres (15 miles) away.

An AFP photographer saw many leaving on foot, carrying their belongings as they walked...