Palestinians were gripped by fear and anxiety on Sunday after the Israeli military said it was preparing for the forcible displacement of 1 million people from Gaza City.

The announcement came days after Israel said it intended to launch a new offensive to seize control of the territory’s largest urban centre, in a plan that raised international alarm, and ahead of the IDF’s latest attacks in the Palestinian territory which Gaza’s health officials said had killed at least 40 people on Saturday including a baby in a tent and people seeking aid.

“Based on the directives of the political leadership, and as part of the Israel Defense Forces’ preparations to transfer civilians from combat zones to the southern Gaza Strip for their safety, starting tomorrow [Sunday], the provision of tents and shelter equipment for Gaza residents will resume,” read a statement by the Israeli Coordination of Government Activities in the Palestinian Territories (COGAT).

“The equipment will be transferred through the Kerem Shalom crossing by the United Nations and international relief organisations, after undergoing thorough inspection by the Land Crossings Authority of the Ministry of Defense,” it added.

Meanwhile, new recordings broadcast by an Israeli TV station showed the Israeli general who headed military intelligence on 7 October 2023 saying that 50 Palestinians “must die” for every person killed that day, and “it does not matter now if they are children”. The channel said the undated conversations were recorded “in recent months”.

And in the US the state department announced that it would stop issuing visas to children from Gaza in desperate need of medical care after an online pressure campaign from Laura Loomer, a far-right influencer close to Donald Trump who has described herself as “a proud Islamophobe”.

After Israel’s announcement, Palestinians in Gaza – displaced repeatedly, forced to live in tent camps or amid the ruins of their homes, stricken by hunger and deprived of medical supplies – are bracing for another humanitarian disaster as a new offensive would force them toward the south of the territory and an uncertain future.

“We are already destroyed and exhausted, physically and psychologically, from repeated displacement, from the lack of food and water,” Akram Shlabia, 85, told the Guardian from the Shuja’iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City. “And now they want us to go to the south. Into nothingness, into the unknown, into a place without shelter or the basic means of life, even safety.”

“We will face many problems in displacement,” said Mazen Hasaneh, 40, from al-Tuffah neighbourhood, who has been displaced six times during the war. “First, securing a way to transport the necessary items like a tent and other basics, and of course many drivers will exploit people’s desperation and raise prices, while people have no money to pay.

“The second problem is finding a place to set up the tent and settle, along with the difficulty of finding and providing water and food. Everything about displacement is suffering, especially in our current conditions.”

Some families have already begun moving south to secure shelter in anticipation of possible evacuation, while others are contacting relatives to ask about available space should the relocation plan proceed. Yet many say they will remain in Gaza City, declaring they would rather stay than face the hardships of displacement.

“If the plan is carried out, I will look for a safe place for myself and my children within Gaza, and I will not consider moving to the south of the Strip,” said Asma Al-Barawi, 34, from al-Tuffah, the mother of seven children. “I didn’t leave the first time, and I won’t leave this time. The experiences and suffering I heard from the displaced who went south were harsh and unbearable.”

“I lost everything because of this war,” she added. “I lost two of my brothers, two of my maternal aunts with their families, my cousin, and my father-in-law. And, I lost my new home, which I only left with some clothes.”

In recent days, heavy explosions have echoed from areas east of Gaza, where Israeli forces have intensified operations, including artillery barrages and the start of an incursion on the outskirts of the Sabra neighbourhood.

On Saturday a baby girl and her parents were killed when an Israeli airstrike hit a tent in al-Muwasi, previously designated a humanitarian zone by Israel, in southern Gaza, Nasser hospital officials and witnesses said.

“Two and a half months old, what has she done?” a neighbour, Fathi Shubeir, asked. “They are civilians in an area designated safe.”

Israel’s military said it could not comment on the strike without more details.

Al-Muwasi is now one of the most heavily populated areas in Gaza after Israel pushed people into the desolate area. But the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said last week that Israel planned to widen its coming military offensive to include the area, along with Gaza City and “central camps” – an apparent reference to the built-up Nuseirat and Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza.

According to the civil defence agency, at least 13 of the Palestinians killed on Saturday were shot by troops as they were waiting to collect food aid near distribution sites in the north and the south.

There were also another 11 malnutrition-related deaths in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, including at least one child. That brought malnutrition-related deaths due to the Israeli blockade on aid to 251.

Meanwhile in Israel police blasted crowds with water cannons and made dozens of arrests on Sunday as thousands of protesters in Jerusalem demanded a deal to free hostages in Gaza. The demonstrators aimed to shut down the country with a one-day strike that blocked roads and closed businesses.

Groups representing families of hostages organised the demonstrations as frustration grows in Israel over plans for the new military offensive, which many fear could further endanger the remaining hostages, about 20 of whom are believed to still be alive.

“We don’t win a war over the bodies of hostages,” protesters chanted in one of the largest and fiercest protests in 22 months of war.

Protesters gathered at dozens of places including outside politicians’ homes, military headquarters and on major highways. They blocked lanes and lit bonfires. Police said they arrested 38 people.

Israel’s military offensive has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, most of them civilians. The figure does not include the thousands believed to be buried under rubble or the thousands killed indirectly as a consequence of the war.