Israel's military said Tuesday it will act with "great force" in Gaza City and told residents to leave as it stepped up a deadly assault on the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a similar warning, as Israel intensified its bombardment in preparation for an operation to seize Gaza City despite global calls to end the war.

"To all residents of Gaza City... the defence forces are determined to defeat Hamas and will act with great force in the Gaza City area," the military's Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a post on X.

"Evacuate immediately via the Al-Rashid axis," he added.

An AFP photographer in Gaza City saw planes drop hundreds of leaflets urging residents to flee southwards.

"I ask Israel: where are we supposed to go?" 36-year-old Khaled Khuwaiter told AFP after he fled from Gaza City's Zeitun neighbourhood.

"Bombing and killings are everywhere. We have only God, because the world watches our slaughter and does nothing."

AFP footage from Monday showed those escaping the offensive leaving behind them a scene of utter devastation, where smoke from the aftermath........

© Al Monitor