The order covers more than 90 school buildings, many of which have turned into overcrowded shelters as people run out of places to stay, along with four medical facilities, Dujarric said.

Among them is the European Hospital in Khan Younis, where many were sheltering and hundreds of patients were being treated. The International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday that the hospital was no longer functioning because so many staff members, patients and others had left.

‘It’s been eight months of war … people are a lot weaker, there’s more injuries, there’s been less medicine, less fresh fruit, less water.’

Louise Wateridge from the UN refugee agency

Though many people in the evacuation zone have made the decision to flee once again, relocating becomes harder and harder as the war drags on.

“In terms of people’s ability to move, it’s been eight months of war, people are extremely fatigued, they’re exhausted, they’re malnourished,” Wateridge said. Healthwise, she said, “people are a lot weaker, there are more injuries, there’s been less medicine available, less fresh fruit, less water.”

More people are also fleeing on foot, she said, and so are taking fewer belongings with them.

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Heba Usrof, 29, a singer who is living in Khan Younis, said she only knew of the evacuation order when she saw hundreds of people passing by outside. A few were carrying mattresses, while others had only backpacks, she said.

“They were not carrying much stuff this time,” Usrof said. “I believe they were too tired to keep carrying stuff from one place to another, and they no longer have money to pay for trucks.”

Usrof said she was living with her family of five in what was left of their two-storey home, in a part of the city that is not under the evacuation order. If tanks approach their home and they have to flee again, she said, she might take only her ID, mobile phone and a change of clothes.