Since Israel renewed its assault on Gaza, its military has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee certain neighbourhoods.
WARNING: This story contains details and images some readers may find disturbing
One of the first areas it ordered Palestinians to leave was Tel Al-Sultan in the southern city of Rafah, but during one of the Israel Defense Force's (IDF) operations, 50,000 people were reportedly trapped there.
Five witnesses have told the ABC that multiple civilians were targeted and killed by the IDF when they were supposed to have safe passage out of the city.
They say this happened during an operation that lasted nearly six hours.
The IDF said it was targeting terrorists.
But the United Nations (UN) said reports of attacks on civilians were consistent with previous incidents during the war.
The morning of March 23
It began with the rumbling of tanks and missile strikes in the dark.
The residents of Tel Al-Sultan could hear IDF vehicles moving around their southern Gaza neighbourhood on the night of Saturday March 22.
At about 8:30am the next morning, IDF text messages, loudspeakers and leaflets told them to leave their homes and flee towards the north.
As they were leaving, the residents say the shooting began.
Mother of six, Abir Al Katati, was rushing with her husband out of the city when she found something horrifying: her son's body on the road ahead.
"He was executed by three bullets," she told the ABC.
"I was hoping it was not him. Once I got closer, I found it was my son thrown on the ground. His flesh, his blood, dead," Ms Al Katati said.
Ms Al Katati said she and her husband had to leave the 25-year-old's body lying there because there was more Israeli fire around them.
The ABC interviewed five witnesses from Tel Al-Sultan who said Israeli tanks and aircraft fired upon civilians as they fled.
They said they were given half an hour to evacuate and saw numerous bodies on the street as they were forced out of the area.
Their accounts match numerous testimonies collected by the UN's Coordination of the Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) office in Gaza.
Ms Al Katati told the ABC the Israeli military began firing as people were leaving the Tel Al-Sultan area, headed towards Al Mawasi, the so-called "humanitarian zone" on Gaza's southern coast.
"There was heavy fire, people were getting killed in front of us. They told us to go to the sea. When we arrived there, there were more killings," Ms Al Katati said.
"They killed people, innocent people, children. People were frightened."
Reports 50,000 people were trapped
Tel Al-Sultan, in the southern city of Rafah, was one of the first to be re-occupied by Israeli troops after the renewed assault began on March 18.
The IDF said it was targeting Hamas militants in the area during the operation that began on the night of March 22.
When the military encircled the city, the Palestinian Civil Defence Agency said 50,000 people were trapped in the cordon.
Here is a timeline of what we know about the movements and actions of the IDF and the evacuation instructions given to the people of Tel Al-Sultan:
- 10pm March 22: Residents hear tanks surrounding Tel Al-Sultan
- 11pm March 22: Residents describe hearing air strikes
- 8:30am March 23: Residents say the IDF ordered them to evacuate
- 9:14am March 23: Residents describe passing through a checkpoint near the Helmi mosque
- 9:21am March 23: The Rafah Municipality says a "massacre" is occurring in Rafah
- 1:30pm March 23: The IDF says the operation is over
The ABC spoke to Palestinian journalist Ezzedine Muasher who was among those trying to leave Tel Al-Sultan.
"There were tanks coming from the UNRWA warehouse in the west, and others from the east. When the tanks came from both directions, we walked north between them. And they opened fire on us. There were people killed and injured," he told the ABC.
A video filmed by Mr Muasher as he left a checkpoint in the area has the time stamp of 9:14am.
Mr Muasher said the IDF — which had told people to leave on foot, not by vehicle — fired on a bus that was taking civilians out of the area.
"I saw them shell the bus. Not many people were on the bus. There were people near the bus and they also escaped," he said, adding that he warned the driver to stop because of the IDF order.
"People got off the bus. So there were only [a] few left. But the tanks opened fire on it. I was ahead of the bus. I didn't see if anyone on it was killed."
The IDF denies that it targeted a bus carrying residents, telling ABC in a statement there is "no basis for the described events".
However another evacuee, Mahmoud el Khalil Mahmoud el Mouwassi told the ABC he was nearby as the bus came under attack.
"I saw a bus that was hit, a yellow bus and inside were also three dead people," he said.
Mr el Mouwassi said he counted at least eight bodies along the road out of Tel Al-Sultan, left lying on the street.
"They spared no-one, no children, no women, no elderly, no young men, they fired at everyone," Mr el Mouwassi said, adding that he believed most of those killed were teenagers.
"Everyone who evacuated from Tel Al-Sultan saw the dead bodies lying on the streets."
He told the ABC he was injured along the way by Israeli aircraft fire.
"I was injured. I was injured by two explosives. I walked even though I was bleeding heavily. I had the courage to resume walking," he said.
But Mr el Mouwassi's ordeal was only just beginning.
Reports children detained
As he continued out of Tel Al-Sultan, Mr el Mouwassi said he was stopped by Israeli soldiers at a makeshift checkpoint and ordered into a large pit with about 200 other people.
He describes seeing children as young as 13, as well as elderly people detained alongside him.
"Most of the children were in that hole. They took us and gave us a uniform. A white one and they gave us numbers. That's my number. It was 16. My uniform was full of blood," Mr el Mouwassi said.
He told the ABC he was taken to a prison in the Negev desert where he was blindfolded and beaten, and deprived of food and water.
"Everyone that was detained was fasting. To break the fast, we begged for water. They told us 'drink your piss'," Mr el Mouwassi said.
"They said on October 7 [when Hamas led attacks into Israeli communities], you ate baklava [to celebrate] — that's the punishment for eating baklava."
Mr el Mouwassi said he was only released after telling the guards he was a cancer patient.
"A soldier told me, 'you stay here because we cannot treat you [for cancer] in Israel'. We will send you to Rafah. I was bleeding," he said, and was then driven back inside Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing and told to walk north.
"He said if you go south, you are a dead man."
In a statement, the Israeli military told the ABC: "The IDF completely rejects the claims regarding the gathering of men in a shooting pit."
It did not answer a subsequent question asking if men, children and elderly people were detained in a pit.
In a follow-up request, the IDF did not address specific questions regarding Mr al Mouwassi's allegations.
ABC has not been able to independently verify claims as foreign press are not permitted inside Gaza.
Human rights groups face the same restrictions.
UN receives reports on Tel Al-Sultan evacuation
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) in Gaza told the ABC it had also received numerous reports from witnesses saying Israeli troops fired upon residents fleeing Tel Al-Sultan.
"I spoke specifically with several people just a few days ago, who had been displaced from Tel Al-Sultan area," OCHA spokeswoman Olga Cherevko told the ABC.
"There are about 35 families now living in an area of Khan Younis in a specific kind of patch of land where they fled to and all of them have said to me that they were being shot at as they ran from these neighbourhoods."
The IDF denied allegations it targeted civilians in the operation and said it was going after "terrorist infrastructure'" in Tel Al-Sultan.
"[The] IDF targets only military objectives and takes feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm," the Israeli military told the ABC.
The IDF also said it used "the most precise munitions available".
But the UN said the reports out of Tel Al-Sultan could, if proven, indicate breaches of international law.
"These reports and many other occurrences that took place over the course of 18 months … point to disregard of international law and of course, we have always said that targeting civilians is absolutely unacceptable and unconscionable," Ms Cherevko said.
For the 2 million people trapped inside Gaza, movement across the strip is constant as the Israeli military issues new orders to leave certain areas.
But the testimony out of Tel Al-Sultan, has raised questions about just how much time people have to follow those orders and whether they are safe while doing so.
Another witness, Mamdouh Muharam, who made it to Al Mawasi, told the ABC he saw people shot on the route.
"While we were walking, we saw a girl dying before our eyes. She was in the middle of the road. Our main problem is that we had nothing to rescue them. We could not help them because we were already with our children walking," he said.
"The killings were mainly done by drones. They fired at people in a random way.
"They say it a safe passage for people to leave and then they fired at them. Why would they do that?"
