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Hello and welcome to News Hour live from the BBC World Service in London. I'm Rebecca Kesbby.

Thousands of people are desperately trying to flee Gaza City as the Israeli military confirms it's begun

its long-threatened ground offensive into the city, its last stronghold, they say, of Hamas.

It follows a night of relentless aerial bombardment. Israeli warplanes attack helicopters

and artillery shells targeting the city throughout the night.

Gaza is burning was the comment Israel's defense minister Israel Katz posted on social media this morning.

Footage posted online shows chaotic scenes as families scramble to leave.

There have been evacuation orders in place for weeks,

but many Palestinians stay.

They don't know where is safe to go to.

There aren't enough tents further south, they say, and water and food is scarce.

As journalists in the city, Garda al-Kurd explained to us earlier.

It's so stressful to think about the evacuation and displacement again after I spent more

than 15 months in the South with the beginning of this war in October, 2023.

And now to think again of leaving Gaza and living to unknown places in the south

without a tent without a place without a clear destination to go there it's something so stressful

so confused to leave all my stuff here to leave all all my furniture, my apartment, and moving to

unknown place and without access to food, to water, or even to internet or any connection.

It's very hard. The place is there is very overcrowded.

With the United Nations Human Rights Chief Volga, has called for an immediate end to what

he called this carnage. It's all happening on the day that a UN investigation has concluded

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