Israeli tank shelling and airstrikes killed at least 37 Palestinians near Khan Younis, Gaza medics said on Monday, after Israel issued new orders to evacuate some neighbourhoods following what it said were renewed attacks from those areas.

The Palestinians were killed by tank salvoes in the town of Bani Suhaila and other towns just east of the southern city of Khan Younis, with the area also bombarded by air, they said.

The Gaza health ministry said the dead included several women and children and that dozens of other people had been injured by Israeli fire. The Gaza ministry does not distinguish between militants and civilians in its death tallies.

Around 400,000 people are living in the targeted areas and that dozens of families have begun to leave their houses, Palestinian officials said, adding they were not given time to leave before the Israeli strikes began.

Some families fled on donkey carts, others on foot, carrying mattresses and other belongings. At Nasser Hospital some people stood outside the morgue to bid farewell to dead relatives.

“We are tired, we are tired in Gaza, every day our children are martyred, every day, every moment,” said Ahmed Sammour, who lost several relatives in the bombing of eastern Khan Younis.

“No one told us to evacuate. They brought four floors crashing down on civilians... and the bodies they could reach, they brought to the refrigerator (morgue),” Sammour added.

There was no immediate Israeli comment on the strikes east of Khan Younis.

In nearby Deir Al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering, an Israeli air strike hit a tent used by local journalists inside Al-Aqsa Hospital, killing one journalist and wounding two other people, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said. The new death raises the number of Palestinian journalists killed in the Israeli offensive to 153, it added.

Earlier, an Israeli military statement said the new evacuation orders were given due to renewed Palestinian militant attacks, including rockets launched from the targeted areas in eastern Khan Younis. The orders did not include health institutions, Palestinians said.