MORE than 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel's bombardment began in October.

Four attacks from Monday morning to noontime Tuesday killed at least 38 people, according to Gaza's health ministry.

An overnight strike near Khan Younis killed 15, while a drone strike at Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir el-Balah took an unknown number of lives.

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The grim development comes as Israeli authorities ordered an evacuation of part of a humanitarian zone it established in the territory.

On Monday morning, thousands of Palestinians carrying backpacks and children walked down dusty roads under the summer sun while departing the evacuation area.

Many Palestinians have been uprooted multiple times in search of safety during Israeli’s punishing air and ground campaign.

“We do not know where we are walking,” said Kholoud Al Dadas, holding her children. “This is our seventh or eighth time we have been displaced.

“While we were sleeping in our homes, they started shooting at us, bombing from everywhere.”

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Moments later, she collapsed in exhaustion and people rushed to her aid.

Earlier this month, Israel estimated at least 1.8 million Palestinians were in the humanitarian zone it declared covering a stretch of about 8.6 miles along the Mediterranean.

Much of that area is now blanketed with tent camps that lack sanitation and medical facilities and have limited access to aid, UN and humanitarian groups say.

Families live in the midst of mountains of waste and streams contaminated by sewage.

The announcement came during delicate negotiations seeking a ceasefire in Gaza, with US and Israeli officials expressing hope that an agreement is closer than ever, and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set off on a much-anticipated trip to the US to meet President Joe Biden and address Congress.

A negotiating team will be sent to continue talks on Thursday, Netanyahu’s office said. Egypt, Qatar and the US are continuing to push Israel and Hamas towards a phased ceasefire deal that would stop the fighting and free Israeli hostages.

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Netanyahu said that regardless of who becomes the next US president, “our enemies must know that Israel and the United States stand together tomorrow and always”.

He said he will thank Biden for more than 40 years of friendship, while also pushing him for more support on certain issues.

Also on Monday, the UN accused the Israeli military of targeting a humanitarian aid convoy.

UNRWA head Philippe Lazzarini said Israel shot at a convoy near an Israeli military checkpoint on Sunday, and that five bullets pierced the clearly marked armoured UN vehicle.

He said that the convoy movement had been co-ordinated with Israeli forces. No one was injured in the incident.

The already precarious humanitarian conditions inside besieged Gaza have worsened with the discovery of the polio virus as water and sanitation services have deteriorated for the territory’s 2.3 million people, most of them displaced.

Traces of the virus were found in sewage samples in Gaza. The World Health Organisation says no one has been treated for symptoms caused by the disease.