The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday morning that dozens of terror operatives had been killed across Gaza over the previous 24 hours, as fighting in Gaza City continued to intensify and Palestinians continued to flee amid looming Israeli plans to capture the city.

The IDF struck three tall buildings in Gaza City on Sunday after issuing separate evacuation warnings for all three, including a university building, which Israel said was being used by Hamas.

Meanwhile, a fresh IDF estimate said that more than 300,000 Palestinians had so far evacuated Gaza City for other areas of the Strip.

Hospitals in Gaza said Israeli strikes had killed at least 13 people on Sunday; Hamas-controlled authorities, which do not distinguish between civilians and combatants, also reported Saturday that at least 47 people had been killed in Israeli strikes in Gaza over the previous 24 hours.

The IDF confirmed carrying out airstrikes on three high-rise towers in Gaza City on Sunday following evacuation warnings for Palestinian civilians in the vicinity.

On Sunday morning, residents said the Kawthar tower, in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, was flattened to the ground about an hour after an IDF warning. There were no immediate reports of casualties. According to the military, Hamas had placed surveillance equipment in that building to track IDF troop movements in the area, in order to advance attacks.

In the afternoon, footage posted by Palestinian media showed a strike against the Mahna Tower high-rise, also in Tel al-Hawa, also following an IDF evacuation warning. Shortly afterward, Israel destroyed the al-Munawwarah City building on the Islamic University of Gaza campus, Palestinian media reported.

According to the military, Hamas had placed surveillance equipment and set up observation posts in the Mahna Tower and a building on the Islamic University campus, in order to track troop movements and advance attacks.

The military said Hamas operatives “prepared to carry out attacks against IDF troops in the area of one of the buildings that was struck.”

Five days after Israel issued an evacuation order for the entirety of Gaza City ahead of a planned offensive there, the IDF asserted that more than 300,000 Palestinians had so far evacuated Gaza City to other areas of the Strip, according to fresh estimates.

Tens of thousands of people had left the area in the past day, the military said on Sunday.

Around one million Palestinians were estimated to be residing in Gaza City before the IDF began to prepare for a major offensive against Hamas there. Last week, the IDF ordered all of Gaza City to evacuate immediately ahead of the planned offensive.

Civilians have been instructed to head for an Israeli-designated humanitarian zone in the Strip’s south. Israel has said it will take over Gaza City, calling it one of Hamas’s last strongholds, and mobilized tens of thousands of reservists for the operation.

The UN and aid groups have warned that displacing hundreds of thousands of people will exacerbate a dire humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Sites in southern Gaza where Israel is telling people to go are often overcrowded, according to the UN, and it can cost money to move, which many people don’t have.

Amid the mass evacuation effort, however, displaced Gazans have — in at least two instances — said they were prevented from setting up tents in an area of the southern Strip.

A video circulating on social media Sunday showed a man in an area north of Khan Younis claiming he was prevented from setting up a tent at the site, saying he was shot at when he tried to do so.

From the footage, it was not clear who the man believes attacked him.

Abdallah, a Gaza City resident who asked not to be further identified, told The Times of Israel that his neighbor left Gaza City after the Israeli military issued an evacuation order amid a widening offensive, and set up a tent in the same area of the south shown in the video.

He said that it was Hamas members who blocked displaced residents from setting up the tents, arguing the land was “government property.”

It should be noted that some accounts on social media claimed that it was private individuals who were preventing evacuated Gazans from setting up the tents.

On Sunday, at least 13 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded in multiple Israeli strikes across Gaza, according to local hospitals.

Two parents, their three children and the children’s aunt were killed in one strike, according to the Al-Aqsa hospital. The family was from the northern town of Beit Hanoun, and arrived in Deir al-Balah last week after fleeing their shelter in Gaza City.

The IDF did not have immediate comment on the particular strikes, but it said Sunday that dozens of terror operatives had been killed in airstrikes in Gaza over the past 24 hours.

In Jabalia and on the outskirts of Gaza City, the IDF said troops of the Givati Infantry Brigade killed more than 10 operatives and destroyed Hamas infrastructure, and that the 215th Artillery Regiment killed additional operatives and destroyed weapon depots.

On the outskirts of Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, the IDF said troops of the 401st Armored Brigade led a strike that killed a group of at least 10 Hamas operatives who were identified in the area.

Also over the weekend, in northern Gaza, the military said the 990th Reserve Artillery Regiment killed additional operatives and destroyed a Hamas anti-tank missile launch post used in a previous attack, and that the Yiftah Reserve Infantry Brigade and Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade destroyed several buildings being used by Hamas for surveillance.

In southern Gaza, reservists of the Etzioni Reserve Infantry Brigade destroyed Hamas surveillance equipment and killed several operatives, the IDF added.

The military also said Sunday that more than 20 Hamas terrorists, including several who participated in the October 7, 2023, onslaught, have been killed in strikes carried out by the 282nd Artillery Regiment in the past month.

Among the slain terrorists who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, was Yousef Jumaa, the commander of a terror cell that raided Kibbutz Alumim, the IDF said, adding he also carried out attacks against Israel and IDF troops in Gaza during the war.

Other operatives killed in the regiment’s strikes were named by the IDF as Samir Laqta, the commander of a Nukhba force cell; Issa Abbas, a company commander in Hamas’s Zeitoun Battalion; and Ismail Adwan, Ahmed Adwan and Mohammed Adwan, all members of Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion.

Water supply to the southern Gaza Strip via a pipeline from Israel has resumed following repairs carried out by international organizations, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said on Sunday.

The Bani Suheila pipeline, near Khan Younis, is one of three water lines from Israel to Gaza.

COGAT did not specify how the pipeline had been damaged. The water lines to Gaza have been repaired several times during the war.

COGAT stated that with the line operational again, approximately 14,000 cubic meters of water are being delivered daily to Palestinians in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and the Mawasi area on the coast.

The Hamas-controlled health ministry claimed on Sunday that two Palestinian adults had died of causes related to malnutrition and starvation in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours.

That brought the ministry’s death toll from malnutrition-related causes to 422, including 145 children, since the war began.

Israel denies that there is starvation in Gaza, and has said that a series of steps it took in July to facilitate the entry and distribution of humanitarian aid have brought food prices in Gaza’s markets back down. The prices shot up amid a two-month Israeli blockade on all aid from March to May, which Israel said it imposed to pressure Hamas to release hostages.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.