Israel said its forces were pushing deep into Gaza City, where residents said tanks were positioned on the outskirts for a potential storming of Gaza's urban heartland.

"For the first time in decades, IDF is fighting in the heart of Gaza City. At the heart of terrorism," Major General Yaron Finkelman, commanding officer of the Southern Command of the Israeli Defence Forces, told reporters near the Gaza border.

Israel gave residents a window from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. to leave Gaza City. Residents say Israeli tanks have been moving mostly at night, with Israeli forces largely relying on air and artillery strikes to clear a path for their ground advance.

"For your safety, take this next opportunity to move south beyond Wadi Gaza," the military announced, referring to the wetlands that bisect the narrow, coastal territory.

Red Cross decries 'moral failing'

Gaza's interior ministry says 900,000 Palestinians are still sheltering in northern Gaza including Gaza City.

The Red Cross demanded an end to the horrific suffering of civilians, and especially children in the conflict, decrying a "moral failing."

"One month on, civilians in Gaza and Israel are being forced to endure tremendous suffering and loss. This needs to stop," the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.

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Israelis gathered in silence and tears to mark one month since Hamas's October 7 attacks, as Israel threatened to intensify its campaign to crush the Palestinian group.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would consider "tactical little pauses" in fighting in the Gaza Strip to let hostages leave or aid get through, but again rejected calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.

Military analysts warned of weeks of grueling house-to-house fighting ahead in Gaza, from which Israel withdrew in 2005 and where it launched its last land incursion in 2014.

"Hamas has had 15 years to prepare a dense 'defense in depth' that integrates subterranean, ground-level and above-ground fortifications," said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute think tank.

Speaking to Qatar-based Al Jazeera media network, Yousri al-Ghoul, a Palestinian political writer, said Israel is committing "ethnic cleansing" in Gaza.

Al-Ghoul left al-Shati refugee camp for Jabalia in northern Gaza. He said that he and his family did not make the trip to the south due to safety concerns.

He added people who made it south have told him that Israeli troops set up multiple checkpoints, "killed many and took many as prisoners … stole their money, stole their jewelry, everything they have."

"No place in Gaza is safe," he said. "Everyone here, even children, think of death."

At least 23 Palestinians were killed in two separate Israeli air strikes in the southern Gaza cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, health officials said.

Israel has bombarded the enclave since the Hamas raid on southern Israel one month ago, when its fighters killed 1,400 people and seized 240 hostages.

Gaza health officials say the Israeli assault has killed more than 10,000 Palestinians, including 4,100 children.

'One full month of carnage'

According to the Hamas-run health ministry, Israel's latest overnight barrage killed 292 people and hit two pediatric hospitals and Gaza's only psychiatric hospital.

"These are massacres. They destroyed three houses over the heads of their inhabitants - women and children," Mahmud Meshmesh, a resident of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, told reporters.

"We have already taken 40 bodies out of the rubble," he said as crowds prayed around corpses wrapped in white shrouds.

Israeli officials accuse Hamas of building tunnels underneath hospitals, schools and places of worship in Gaza to hide fighters, store arms and ammunition, and plan attacks - charges the militant group has denied.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, began a five-day visit to the Middle East to engage with government officials and civil society on the human rights violations taking place amid Israel's escalation in Gaza.

"It has been one full month of carnage, of incessant suffering, bloodshed, destruction, outrage and despair," Turk said in a statement. "Human rights violations are at the root of this escalation and human rights play a central role in finding a way out of this vortex of pain."

The World Health Organization has warned that more than 160 health workers have been killed on duty in Gaza and that some people in the enclave are being operated on without anesthesia, including amputations.

The United Arab Emirates is to set up a field hospital in the Gaza Strip.

Five aircraft flew out of Abu Dhabi for Arish in northern Egypt carrying equipment and supplies for the 150-bed facility, WAM news agency said.

Both Israel and Hamas have rebuffed mounting calls for a halt in fighting. Israel says hostages should be released first. Hamas says it will not free them nor stop fighting while Gaza is under attack.

No general ceasefire

Netanyahu said a general ceasefire would hamper his country's war effort, but pausing fighting for humanitarian reasons, an idea supported by Israel's top ally the United States, would continue to be considered based on circumstances.

"As far as tactical little pauses - an hour here, an hour there - we've had them before. I suppose we'll check the circumstances in order to enable goods, humanitarian goods to come in, or our hostages, individual hostages, to leave," Netanyahu told ABC News.

"But I don't think there's going to be a general ceasefire."

U.S. President Joe Biden discussed such pauses and possible hostage releases in a phone call with Netanyahu, reiterating his support for Israel while emphasizing that it must protect civilians, the White House said.

Like Israel, the U.S. fears Hamas would take advantage of a full ceasefire to regroup.

At least 320 foreign nationals entered Egypt from Gaza today, after the Rafah crossing was closed over the weekend, according to the Reuters news agency, citing Egyptian sources.

On Monday, 93 aid trucks carrying food, medicine and water crossed from Egypt into Gaza, the United Nations said, but the needs are overwhelming.

'We need to yell louder'

Meanwhile, in the latest protest, hundreds of U.S. Jewish activists peacefully occupied New York's Statue of Liberty to demand a ceasefire and an end to the "genocidal bombardment" of civilians in Gaza.

"As long as the people of Gaza are screaming, we need to yell louder, no matter who attempts to silence us," said photographer Nan Goldin at the protest.

International organizations have said hospitals cannot cope with the wounded and food and clean water are running out with aid deliveries nowhere near enough.

"We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. It's been 30 days. Enough is enough. This must stop now," said a statement from the heads of several United Nations' bodies.

The Israeli military said it took control of a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip, where it said the forces located anti-tank missiles and launchers, weapons and various intelligence materials. 

Israeli aircraft struck several Hamas fighters who had barricaded themselves in a building near the al-Quds Hospital and planned to launch an attack on Israeli forces, it said.

The Israeli military released video of tanks moving through bombed-out streets and groups of troops moving on foot. It says it has surrounded Gaza City, cutting off northern parts of the narrow coastal strip from the south. 

'You don't know if you can come back alive'

In a press briefing, chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said troops were hunting Hamas field level commanders to weaken the militants' ability "to carry out counter attacks."

Stationed near Gaza, a 20-year-old soldier said he was "a bit scared to go" into the Palestinian territory if given the order.

"You don't know if you can come back alive," said the soldier, whose name like those of other troops cannot be published because of Israeli military censorship.

Around 30 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the offensive, according to a report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), citing Israeli sources.

The UN Security Council met behind closed doors. The 15-member body is still trying to agree a resolution after failing four times in two weeks to take action. Diplomats said a key obstacle is whether to call for a ceasefire, cessation of hostilities or humanitarian pauses to allow aid access in Gaza.

Israel said it was striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon in response to a barrage of rockets fired at northern Israeli cities. The Israeli military said it detected around 30 launches from Lebanon in an hour. 

The Iran-backed Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the Lebanese-Israeli frontier since October 7, in the worst fighting there since Hezbollah and Israel fought a war in 2006.

Hamas said it had launched 16 missiles towards Nahariyya and southern Haifa in Israel.

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