The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that Gaza's health system is at a "breaking point" as Israel's intensified military operations continue, amidst worsening mass population displacement and acute shortages of basic necessities.
Four major hospitals in Gaza have had to suspend medical services in the past week due to their proximity to incidents.
WHO missions attempting to reach Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital were impeded, it said.
Only 19 of Gaza's 36 hospitals remain operational while at least 94% of all hospitals are damaged or destroyed, the WHO said, adding that only 12 are in a condition to provide a variety of health services.
Plumes of smoke have risen over northern Gaza, where Israel's military urged civilians to evacuate, as rescuers said Israeli strikes across the territory killed more than 50 people.
The latest evacuation warning for parts of Gaza City and neighbouring areas came hours after the United Nations said it had begun distributing around 90 truckloads of aid in Gaza -- the first such delivery since Israel imposed a total blockade on 2 March.
The World Food Programme later said a "handful of bakeries" had resumed making and distributing bread, while the United Nations said some trucks were "intercepted" by residents.
Under global pressure to lift the blockade and halt a newly expanded offensive, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was open to a "temporary ceasefire", but reaffirmed the military aimed to bring all of Gaza under its control.
In an Arabic-language statement, the military said it was acting "with intense force" in 14 areas of northern Gaza, including parts of Gaza City and the Jabalia refugee camp.
A map posted alongside the warning showed a swath of territory marked in red, with the army accusing "terrorist organisations" of operating there and urging civilians to move south.
The vast majority of Gaza's 2.4 million have been displaced at least once during the war.
After Israel announced it would allow in limited aid, Mr Netanyahu said it was necessary to "avoid a humanitarian crisis in order to preserve our freedom of operational action".
In Gaza, the Hamas government media office reported the arrival of 87 aid trucks.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said that "a small number of trucks carrying flour were intercepted by residents and their contents removed".
Mr Dujarric said it "was not a criminal act with armed men", but "what I've been referring to sometimes as self-distribution, which I think only reflects the very high level of anxiety that people in Gaza are feeling not knowing when the next humanitarian delivery will take place".
'Hunger and disease'
Palestinians have been scrambling for basic supplies, with Israel's blockade leading to critical food and medicine shortages.
UN agencies have said that the amount of aid entering Gaza falls far short of what is required to ease the crisis.
AFP footage showed bags of recently delivered flour at a bakery in the central city of Deir el-Balah, where workers and a host of machines began kneading, shaping, baking and packaging stack after stack of pita bread.
"Some aid is finally reaching Gazans in desperate need, but it's moving far too slowly," said WFP executive director Cindy McCain.
"A handful of bakeries in south and central Gaza... have resumed bread production after dozens of trucks were finally able to collect cargo from the Kerem Shalom border crossing and deliver it overnight," the WFP said in a statement.
Israel stepped up its offensive at the weekend, vowing to defeat Gaza's Hamas rulers, whose October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the war.
Gaza's civil defence agency reported "52 martyrs" in Israeli air strikes across the territory.
AFP footage of northern Gaza showed numerous plumes of smoke rising from the area over the course of the afternoon.
There was no comment from the Israeli military on any strikes.
'Emboldening Hamas'
The intensified Israeli offensive has drawn criticism, with EU foreign ministers agreeing on Tuesday to review the bloc's cooperation accord with Israel.
Sweden said it would press the 27-nation European Union to impose sanctions on Israeli ministers, while Britain suspended free-trade negotiations with Israel.
In a joint statement, the leaders of Britain, Canada and France slammed the escalation and the "wholly inadequate" resumption of aid, warning of the possibility of "concrete actions in response".
Mr Netanyahu hit back, saying the three leaders "may think that they're advancing peace. They're not. They're emboldening Hamas to continue fighting forever."
'Days' before Red Crescent may stop operations in Gaza due to supply shortage
The head of the Palestinian Red Crescent has said its operations in Gaza may stop within days in the absence of fresh supplies and its ambulance fleet was running at only a third of capacity due to fuel shortages.
Flour and other aid have begun reaching some of Gaza's most vulnerable areas after Israel let some trucks through, but nowhere near enough to make up for shortages caused by an 11-week Israeli blockade, Palestinian officials said.
Israel said it let in 100 trucks carrying baby food and medical equipment yesterday, two days after announcing its first relaxation of the blockade under mounting international pressure amid warnings of starvation in Gaza.
Israel imposed the blockade on all humanitarian supplies in March.
Asked how long his organisation could continue operating in Gaza, Palestine Red Crescent Society President Younis Al-Khatib told reporters in Geneva: "It's a matter of time. It could be days.
"We are running out of fuel. The capacity of ambulances we work with now is one third," he added, saying its gasoline-powered ambulances had already halted but it had some that were running on solar power provided by the United Nations.
The PRCS is part of the world's largest humanitarian network, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and provides medical care in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Mr Al-Khatib criticised the small amount of aid Israel has allowed into Gaza so far, warning of the risk of mob attacks.
"I think that is an invitation for killing. These people are starving," he said.
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Israel, at war with Gaza's dominant militant group Hamas since October 2023, has repeatedly defended its controls on aid in the enclave, saying there is enough food there and denying accusations of causing starvation.
He added his voice to criticism of a US-backed organisation that aims to start work in Gaza by the end of May overseeing a new model of aid distribution. "It's not up for discussion. No, no, no," he said.
"The world should not give up on the system as we know it."
The US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation intends to work with private US security and logistics firms to provide aid to 300,000 people from distribution hubs in Gaza's south.
Gaza's total population is 2.3 million, most of it displaced. The UN has said a quarter are at risk of famine.
The Palestinian health minister earlier said that 29 children and elderly people had died from starvation-related deaths in Gaza in recent days and that many thousands more were at risk.
"In the last couple of days we lost 29 children," Majed Abu Ramadan said, describing them as "starvation-related deaths". He later clarified that the total included elderly people as well as children.
The United Nations has sought to clarify widely-reported remarks made by its humanitarian chief on Tuesday that 14,000 babies would die in Gaza within 48 hours.
In a statement to the BBC, which broadcast the original interview with Tom Fletcher, the UN said they were pointing to the need to get supplies to those suffering from malnutrition "as soon as possible, ideally within the next 48 hours".
The UN highlighted a report that said over 14,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition were expected to occur in children between April 2025 and March 2026 - a period of 11 months, not 48 hours."
"Some bakeries will begin receiving flour to produce bread, and we expect the distribution of bread to begin later today," Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organisations Network in Gaza, said.
He said just 90 trucks had got through.
"During the ceasefire, 600 trucks used to enter every day, which means that the current quantity is a drop in the ocean, nothing," he said.
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Bakeries backed by the UN's World Food Programme would produce the bread and the agency's staff would hand it out - a more controlled system than previously when bakers sold it directly to the public at a low cost, he added.
"The idea is to try and reach the most needy families, those who are desperate, as it is just the start," Mr Shawa said.
