Since the week-long ceasefire in Gaza ended on December 1, Israel has expanded its offensive to the south of the besieged enclave, where more than a million Palestinians have sought refuge after Israeli bombardments in the north.

Israel has stepped up attacks on Khan Younis, calling it “an attack.”dangerous combat zone“. Gaza’s second largest city, designated a safe zone in the early days of the war, is now a scene of devastation and suffering. Fear of Israeli attacks haunts people, while lack of food and other basic amenities has driven people into destitution amid bloody street fighting.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to attack northern Gaza, raiding Kamal Adwan Hospital on Tuesday.

Here’s what’s happening in Khan Younis and the rest of southern Gaza.

What is happening in Khan Younis?

Two people were killed in Khan Younis Israeli artillery fire on Tuesday.

A bicycle was reportedly hit in the center of Khan Younis on Sunday, killing two Palestinian children who were riding it, according to the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.

The city was hit by airstrikes and belts of fire, resulting in casualties and injuries. Injured Palestinians were mostly taken to the city’s Nasser and Europa hospitals, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Monday pushed back against international calls to complete the country’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip, saying the current phase of the operation against the Hamas group “will take time.”

How many people fled to Khan Younis?

Over a million Palestinians have been displaced from the northern Gaza Strip since October 13, when the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate to the south 24 hours in advance.

More than 215,000 displaced Palestinians found refuge in dozens of UNRWA shelters in Khan Younis.

However, on December 3rd, Israel ordered an immediate evacuation According to OCHA, the area targeted for evacuation included 21 shelters and 50,000 internally displaced people, mostly from northern Gaza.

Several of those displaced to Khan Younis were forced to move further to the town of Rafah, near the Egyptian border, some for the fourth time since the violence began.

Now thousands of displaced people from Khan Younis itself, as well as from northern Gaza, are crammed into dangerously overcrowded areas al-Fukhari, south of Khan Younis. Hospitals and schools in the area are overcrowded as the Israeli army continues to order Palestinians to move further south.

Shrinking space and the increasing risk of health problems and infections due to water shortages are increasing concerns.

Attacks on the southern Gaza Strip

Thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee further south towards the city of Rafah. Twenty Palestinians, including seven children and at least five women, were killed Israeli attacks on Rafah on Tuesday. There are reports of further air strikes.

Martin Griffiths, U.N. humanitarian coordinator, says his organization is confident and has been informed that there will be a different, more precise approach to the fighting once the war shifts to the southern Gaza Strip.

“[But] What happened is that the attack on the southern Gaza Strip was no less than on the north. At the moment there is a rage in Khan Younis and it threatens Rafah. The population density is greater. We cannot be sure that any of our deployment points are safe,” he told Al Jazeera.

The central Gaza Strip was not spared either, as an Israeli airstrike leveled a residential building housing about 80 people in the Maghazi refugee camp overnight, killing at least 22 people on Monday.

Israeli airstrikes and the brutal ground invasion have killed at least 18,205 Palestinians and injured 49,645 others. More than 80 percent of the fatalities are civilians.

Do residents of southern Gaza have access to food?

The UN special rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, says “every single Palestinian in Gaza is starving” and warns that the world is witnessing a “genocide”.

UN officials and human rights groups have called on Israel to speed up the deployment of humanitarian aid in Gaza by opening the southern Karem Abu Salem (Karem Shalom) border with Israel.

Israel announced it would conduct security checks on aid supplies in Karem Abu Salem starting Tuesday. The first humanitarian trucks were inspected and were on their way to the Rafah border.

The Palestinians who remain in the north are starving as little aid has reached the area devastated by Israel’s relentless bombing.