Good evening, I'm John Yang.

There are signs tonight that Israel is preparing to expand ground operations into an area of central Gaza that's been a relatively safe refuge for displaced Palestinians and humanitarian aid groups.

The Israeli military issued evacuation orders for an area around Dierre al-Bala, where forces have largely refrained from operating

for fear of endangering hostages still held by Hamas.

The orders came as at least 85 more Palestinians

were said to have died while trying to get to food aid distribution sites.

The largest toll was in northern Gaza,

where people were approaching UN aid trucks entering from Israel

at the Zikim crossing. We were just going to get food to bring for our children. We were

not going to beg or fight. We just wanted to eat. Many Palestinians say they have to choose

between risking being killed trying to get food or going without.

The UN has said that in recent weeks, nearly 900 people had died trying to get aid,

mostly nearer sites run by the private, U.S. and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Sudarsan Raghavan is the Wall Street Journal's senior Middle East correspondent.

Sue Darsen, we just heard a Palestinian in that introduction talk about what he faced as

he tried to get food aid.

I know that you've done some reporting and you have other stories of other personal stories.

What can you tell us?

It's really a Sophie's choice for most Gazans.

It's a daily stark choice between starvation and then risking death to go through combat zones

in order to go to a handful of food distribution points in Gaza.

We spoke with several individuals who faced this choice, and it was extremely sad.

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