Thousands of Palestinians have fled northern Gaza after Israel gave the area's entire population until Saturday morning to move south, ahead of an expected Israeli ground assault which regional leaders are warning could pull the wider region into the "abyss" of conflict.

A week on since Hamas launched a surprise attack against Israel that left more than 1,300 dead - Israel's military continued to pound the Palestinian territory with air strikes on Saturday, bringing the death toll to more than 2,220, as it readied for what is set to be a devastating land incursion.

"Around the Gaza Strip, Israeli reserve soldiers in formation (are) getting ready for the next stage of operations," Israeli military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told a video briefing early on Saturday. "They are all around the Gaza Strip, in the south, in the center and in the north, and they are preparing themselves for whatever target they get, whatever task."

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Calling up around 300,000 reserve troops, the army said Israeli ground forces had already made "localized" raids into the enclave "to cleanse the area of terrorists and weaponry," the first since Hamas' lightening strike last weekend. The coming ground assault has prompted concern for the Israeli hostages still trapped in Gaza and of a wider war in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, the UN, Arab countries and other groups have condemned the Israeli army evacuation order, as many Gazans said they have nowhere to go, with exits from the territory, to Egypt and Israel, shut. Jordan's foreign ministry said any move by Israel to impose a new displacement of Palestinians was a "red line" that Arabs would confront, adding that such an act could bring the wider region "into the hell of war."

In Gaza City's Tel Al-Hawa neighborhood, part of the area Israel has ordered evacuated, warplanes bombed a residential area during the night, hitting several houses, according to residents. Hundreds of residents of the area took refuge at the nearby Quds hospital and planned to join those fleeing to the south in the morning.

"We lived a night of horror. Israel punished us for not wanting to leave our home. Is there brutality worse than this?", a father of three said from the hospital, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals. "I was never going to leave, I prefer to die and not leave, but I can't see my wife, children die before my eyes. We are helpless."

In the last 24 hours alone, Gaza's health ministry said at least 324 people had been killed in airstrikes. In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli planes struck a four-story building, killing and wounding several people.

"This is a genocide, not a war, it's genocide. And it's an attempt to displace the people of the Gaza Strip, but this will not happen," said neighbor Mohammad Sadeq, echoing Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh accusations. "Martyrs are stuck under the rubble and until now neither us nor the medics nor civil defense were able to take them out."

However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Friday that the bombardment so far was "just the beginning."

 

'This is only the beginning'

Israel has pledged to annihilate Hamas, the military group that controls Gaza, in retaliation for a lightening strike by the group's fighters, who stormed through Israeli towns a week ago, killing 1,300 people and seizing scores of hostages.

Israel has since put the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege, cutting off its access to electricity - a decision human rights groups claim could amount to a war crime - while bombarding the enclave with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities say that at least 2,215 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced. 

The Gaza Strip is already one of the most crowded areas in the world, and Israel's evacuation order for the northern half meant those fleeing south were forced to shelter with relatives and friends, in schools or in hastily rented apartments. The United Nations says so many people cannot be safely moved inside the besieged enclave without causing a humanitarian disaster.

It also reflects deep Arab fears that Israel's latest war with Hamas could spark a new wave of permanent displacement. For Palestinians, the idea of leaving or being driven out of land where they want to forge a state carries echoes of the "Nakba", or "catastrophe", where up to a million Palestinians were forced to flee their homes amid the creation of Israel in 1948.

"This is the cause of all causes, the cause of all Arabs," Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said on Thursday. "It is important that the (Palestinian) people remain steadfast and present on their land."

Israel meanwhile says the evacuation order to leave is temporary, and a humanitarian gesture to protect residents from harm while it roots out Hamas fighters entrenched in Gaza City. Overnight on Friday it announced that the safety of Palestinians fleeing the area would be guaranteed on two main roads until 4:00 pm (local time) on Saturday.

Hamas, however, has said the order to leave is a trick to force residents to give up their homes, with Gaza City mosques sending out the message for people to stay. Authorities said 70 people had already been killed and 200 wounded when Israel struck cars and trucks carrying people fleeing the north of the strip for the south on Friday.

"We are striking our enemies with unprecedented might," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a rare statement televised after the Jewish Sabbath began on Friday. "I emphasize that this is only the beginning."

Conricus, the military spokesman, said: "The end state of this war is that we will dismantle Hamas and its military capability and fundamentally change the situation so that Hamas never again has the ability to inflict any damage on Israeli civilians or soldiers."

The Israeli military said on Friday tank-backed troops had mounted raids to hit Palestinian rocket crews and gather information on the location of hostages, the first official account of ground troops in Gaza since the crisis began.

 

'Even wars have rules'

The United Nations estimated that tens of thousands of Palestinians headed south from northern Gaza after the Israeli order on Friday, adding to the 400,000 Gazans already displaced earlier in the week.

"No safe corridors were initially provided for people to safely comply with the orders to move southwards. Hundreds of people, including families, had to flee on foot. There are concerns about the food security, and access to water, shelter, and health care of the new IDPs," the UN office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update. It said it no longer considered UN premises in the northern half of Gaza to be protected.

The UN and other bodies have called on Israel to lift its total siege of Gaza so that aid can get in. "We need immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza, so that we can get fuel, food and water to everyone in need," UNSecretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday. "Even wars have rules."

The U.S. has firmly backed its ally's response, but has called on Israel to avoid civilian casualties. President Joe Biden said tackling the humanitarian crisis was a top priority, saying U.S. teams in the region were working with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, other Arab governments and the UN.

However, tensions have risen across the Middle East and beyond, with angry protests in support of Palestinians, and Israel forces attacking Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Israeli shelling killed a Reuters video journalist and injured six other reporters near the Israeli-Lebanon border, while in the occupied West Bank, 16 Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces.

Jordan's King Abdullah was heading on Saturday to Europe in stepped-up diplomatic efforts aimed at garnering support for an end to the impending humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and preventing a wider conflagration. The monarch told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Friday that the priority was protecting civilians on both sides and ensuring Israel allows urgent aid into Gaza.

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Cover image: Israeli tanks and military vehicles take position near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. /Violeta Santos Moura/Reuters