Israeli Military Orders Residents of Gaza City to Evacuate

The Israeli military ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate on Tuesday, signaling that it was moving ahead with its full-scale invasion of the largest city in northern Gaza.

The order will force hundreds of thousands of people to decide whether to risk staying in the city or to flee south to areas that are already overcrowded. Many of those areas are also in ruins.

The announcement came as indirect cease-fire talks between Hamas and Israel remain stalled, with the two sides staking out contradictory positions on how to end the war. “The Israel Defense Force is insistent on finishing Hamas and will act in Gaza City with great force as it has in all areas of the strip,” Avichay Adraee, an Arabic-language spokesman for the military, said in a post on social media. “For your safety, evacuate immediately.”

Mr. Adraee instructed people to go to a “humanitarian area” south of Gaza City, where he had said last week that efforts were being made to deliver aid. Earlier in the war, the Israeli military told Palestinians to go to the same general region and defined it as a “humanitarian area,” but still conducted airstrikes there.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has warned that further intensification of military operations in Gaza City would cause a “catastrophe” for civilians, and has said the United Nations and its humanitarian partners would continue operating in the city to provide aid to those who stay.

The Israeli military has said that its operation in Gaza City would prevent Hamas fighters from regrouping and planning future attacks, and that it would extend into parts of the city that Israeli soldiers have not previously attacked or held during the war.