The UN announced on Friday that over 180,000 Palestinians have had to flee Khan Younis in the past four days amid a ferocious Israeli assault on areas in the city previously declared "safe zones" by the Israeli military.
The news came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warmly received by Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a proposed ceasefire deal in Gaza as soon as possible.
However there has been no clear sign of movement in talks to end the war and bring home some 115 Israeli and foreign hostages still being held in Gaza. Public statements from Israel and Hamas appear to indicate that serious differences remain between the two sides.
Local residents contacted by messenger app, said Israeli tanks had pushed into three towns to the east of Khan Younis, Bani Suhaila, Al-Zanna and Al-Karara and blew up several houses in some residential districts. Medics said at least six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes in eastern Khan Younis.
The military claimed air force jets hit around 45 targets, including tunnels and two launch pads from which rockets were fired into Beersheba in southern Israel.
Even while the fighting continued around Khan Younis in central Gaza and Rafah in the south, in the northern part of the enclave, Israeli tanks pushed into the Tel Al-Hawa suburb west of Gaza city, residents said.
A Hamas Telegram channel said fighters targeted an Israeli tank in Tal Al-Hawa and shot an Israeli soldier.
Medics said two Palestinians were also killed in an air strike in western Gaza city.