The Israeli military has told the UN that everyone living north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza in the next 24 hours.
The UN has said that this amounts to approximately 1.1 million people – about half the population of the entire Gaza Strip. The affected area includes densely populated Gaza City.
The alert was given just before midnight, Gaza and Jerusalem time (23:00 GMT).
“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences,” the UN said in a statement.
Israel has issued a response to the UN, defending its evacuation order and saying the international body’s statement was “shameful”.
Gilad Erdan, the country’s ambassador to the UN, said Israel was giving an early warning to the residents of Gaza and was trying to “minimise harm to those not involved” in its military operation against Hamas.
“For many years, the UN has turned a blind eye to the arming of Hamas and its use of the civilian population and civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip as a hiding place for its weapons and murder,” he said.
“Now, instead of standing by Israel, whose citizens were slaughtered by Hamas terrorists… it preaches to Israel,” said Mr Erdan.
“It is better for the UN to focus now on returning the hostages, condemning Hamas, and supporting Israel’s right to defend itself,” he added.
