An unknown number of Gazans have left Gaza City as Israel Defense Forces continue a recently begun offensive against Hamas in the northern city.

Displaced Gazans carry pots and pans for hot meals at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza City amid an ongoing Israeli blockade and attacks against Hamas on Thursday. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI UPI Palestinians flee south from Gaza City amid intensified Israeli shelling during a military operation in central Gaza, Thursday. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI UPI Displaced Gazans carry pots and pans for hot meals at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza City amid an ongoing Israeli blockade and attacks against Hamas on Thursday. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI UPI Displaced Gazans carry pots and pans for hot meals at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza City amid an ongoing Israeli blockade and attacks against Hamas on Thursday. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI UPI Palestinians flee south from Gaza City amid intensified Israeli shelling during a military operation in central Gaza, Thursday. Photo by Hassan Al-Jadi/UPI UPI

Sept. 18 (UPI) -- An unknown number of Gazans have left Gaza City as Israel Defense Forces continue a recently begun offensive against Hamas in the northern city.

Satellite images show several encampments that formerly housed Gazans in tents mostly emptied in recent weeks after the IDF warned the civilian population to evacuate the area, NBC News reported.

IDF armored vehicles and troops have begun entering the city during the past week and are aided by aerial assaults.

Local phone lines and Internet services have been disrupted in Gaza City, which the IDF had identified as a Hamas stronghold and says it is holding many of an estimated 50 hostages, several of whom Israeli intelligence says likely are dead.

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Many of the estimated hundreds of thousands who are fleeing Gaza City are moving south to an area that the IDF has designated a humanitarian zone for Gazan civilians.

While Gazans flee Gaza City, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich suggested the Gaza Strip might become a "real estate bonanza," when the war between Israel and Hamas eventually ends, the BBC reported.

Smotrich said he is working with U.S. officials to possibly divide Gaza into smaller territories and rebuild the Gaza Strip.

"A business plan is on President [Donald] Trump's table," he said during a recent event in Tel Aviv, as reported by the BBC.

"We've done the demolition phase," he reportedly said. "Now we need to rebuild."

Trump in February suggested the United States take long-term ownership of part of the Gaza Strip and turn it into the "Riviera of the Middle East," while encouraging voluntary emigration from the area.

Meanwhile, the continued IDF offensive in Gaza spurred officials for the European Union to propose sanctions for what they consider to be human rights violations by Israel.

The proposed sanctions include suspending trade-related benefits on 37% of Israeli-exported goods and freezing the EU's bilateral support for Israel.

Exceptions would be made for civil entities in Israel and Yad Vashem, which is a Holocaust remembrance center.