Gaza (National Times) The Israeli military has expanded an evacuation order for Gaza City, with a new wave of residents fleeing the territory’s main city amid intense fighting, AFP reports.

Civilians have now been ordered out of the majority of the Gaza Strip’s largest city, where thousands of families had taken shelter from fighting in other parts of the battered territory.

Backed by fighter jet and drone attacks, columns of tanks took up positions around the city, while an army spokesman warned residents of the Sabra, Rimal, Tal Al-Hawa and Al-Daraj districts to flee to so-called “humanitarian zones”.

The civil defence agency in the territory said even before the additional warning that it had reports of “dozens” of dead and wounded from night-time fighting in different parts of the city.