Huge numbers of Palestinians were fleeing Gaza City by any means Wednesday as the Israeli military pressed its ground offensive, killing dozens in strikes.
Images showed a steady stream of Gazans heading south on foot, by car and on donkey carts, with their few belongings piled high as Israel bombarded the city.
Israel had announced the day before that the US-backed campaign in the Gaza Strip's largest city had begun, pledging to destroy the militant group Hamas in the area.
The offensive has sparked outrage among the international community, with the Palestinian territory already devastated by nearly two years of war and the Gaza City region gripped by a UN-declared famine.
Gaza's civil defence agency, a rescue force operating under Hamas authority, said Israeli fire had killed at least 62 people across the territory Wednesday.
The Israeli military said it was opening a temporary new route via Salah al-Din Street to allow people to flee, after unleashing a massive bombardment before dawn on Tuesday and pushing its troops deeper into Gaza City.
It came as a United Nations probe accused Israel of committing genocide in the Palestinian territory, saying Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials had incited the crime.
Israel's Arabic-language spokesman, Colonel Avichay Adraee, said the corridor would remain open for just 48 hours from midday (0900 GMT).
Israel's campaign has killed at least 65,062 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza, move southward, in the central Gaza Strip Wednesday.
A displaced Palestinian man, fleeing northern Gaza moves southward in the central Gaza Strip Wednesday.
