At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since dawn across Gaza as Israel threatened tens of thousands remaining in Gaza City with a forced order to leave, saying it was their “last opportunity” to flee or face the “full force” of Israel’s assault.

Defence Minister, Israel Katz wrote on X on Wednesday that anyone who stayed would be considered “terrorists and terror supporters”.

The continuous bombardment of Gaza City has razed the territory’s largest urban centre, killing dozens of people daily, destroying numerous residential buildings and schools, and forcing tens of thousands of Palestinians to flee to an unknown fate to the south, often targeted on the way.

Reporting from the al-Rashid road, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the Israeli military was ordering people to leave, then chasing them on the coastal route south with military choppers, drones and tanks, creating “mayhem and panic”.

“A big part of the reason that people are not now leaving Gaza City is because of the fear and the intimidation created by the Israeli military,” he said.

On Thursday, a child was killed by Israeli drone fire in the Ansar area, west of Gaza City, according to emergency and ambulance services.

Nine people were killed and 13 were injured due to Israel’s targeting of displaced people in the central Gaza Strip, medical sources told Al Jazeera.

A Palestinian and his wife were killed in an Israeli drone strike on a house in the al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Another Palestinian was killed and more than 10 were injured in an Israeli drone attack south of Deir el-Balah.

Despite the relentless Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza City, aimed at forcing civilians to flee south, some are making the dangerous choice to return to the north.

On Wednesday, the Gaza Government Media Office said that the Israeli military had shut al-Rashid Street, which it described as “one of the vital arteries that civilians rely on for travel between Gaza’s governorates”.

AFP/Adebukola Aluko