Thousands of Palestinians were fleeing on foot in a surge away from the fighting and intense bombardment in Gaza as Israel said it was tightening the “stranglehold” around Hamas, AFP.

People walked south from Gaza City, many with nothing but the clothes they wore, while combat raged over a month after the Hamas attacks that killed 1,400 in Israel, sparking retaliatory attacks from Israel.

According to the health ministry in the besieged territory, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 10,500 people, many of them children.

The pace of Palestinian civilians fleeing south from northern Gaza has accelerated as Israel's air and ground campaign has intensified, according to UN observers.