Israel prepares ground assault on Gaza as Palestinians flee

Israel was preparing on Saturday (local time) to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, after telling Palestinians living in the densely populated territory to flee south towards a closed border with Egypt.

The Israeli national security adviser meanwhile warned Lebanese militant group Hezbollah not to start a war on a second front to Israel's north, threatening the "destruction of Lebanon" it if did.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas militant group that controls Gaza in retaliation for a rampage by its fighters, who stormed through Israeli towns a week ago, gunning down civilians and making off with scores of hostages in the worst attack on civilians in Israel's history.

Some 1300 people were killed in a brutal onslaught that left Israel in profound shock, both at the scale of the killing and at horrifying mobile phone footage and reports from medical and emergency services of atrocities in the towns and kibbutzes that were overrun.

In response, Israeli jets and artillery have subjected Gaza to the most intense bombardment it has ever seen, putting the enclave, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under total siege.

Gaza authorities say more than 2200 people have been killed, a quarter of them children, and nearly 10,000 wounded. Rescue workers searched desperately for survivors of nighttime air raids.

Thousands of Palestinians fled the north of the Gaza Strip on Saturday from the path of the expected Israeli ground assault, while Israel pounded the area with more air strikes and said it kept two roads open to let people escape.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Palestinians would "remain in our land" even as one million Gaza residents were reported to have fled their homes since Israel began its bombardment.

The surprise Hamas attack on 7 October has launched the region into a new crisis as furious Israeli leaders prepare to respond with crushing force.

"IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers and battalions are deployed across the country and are increasing operational readiness for the next stages of the war, with an emphasis on significant ground operations," the military said in a statement.

It added this would include air, sea and land assaults and cover an "expanded arena of combat", without elaborating.

On Friday, the Israeli military told the population of the northern half of the Gaza Strip, which includes the enclave's biggest settlement Gaza City, to move south immediately. On Saturday, it said it would guarantee the safety of Palestinians fleeing on two main roads until 4pm. As the deadline passed, troops were massing around Gaza.

Hamas has told people not to leave and says roads out are unsafe. It says dozens of people had been killed in strikes on cars and trucks carrying refugees on Friday, which Reuters could not independently verify. Israel says Hamas is preventing people from leaving to use them as human shields, which Hamas denies.

In Gaza City's Tel Al-Hawa neighbourhood, in the area Israel ordered evacuated, warplanes bombed a residential area during the night hitting several houses, according to residents who took refuge at the nearby Al Quds hospital.

"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 by telephone from the hospital, declining to give his name for fear of reprisals.

"I prefer to die and not leave, but I can't see my wife and children die before my eyes."

The Palestinian Red Crescent said it had received an Israeli order to evacuate the hospital by 4pm, but would not do so because it had a humanitarian duty to keep providing services to the sick and wounded.

In Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, where Israeli planes struck a four-storey building overnight, neighbours rushed to rescue people.

A Gaza journalist filmed an ambulance crew searching for survivors of a nighttime air strike. A paramedic could be seen walking into an alley lit by a headlamp when a huge flash from another strike burst in front of him. Medics raced into ambulances and sped off as planes roared above. One injured medic screamed: "My eyes! My eyes!"

'Release of the women and children'

The attacks on Israel have plunged the nation into deep grief and galvanised it for war, with hundreds of thousands of reservists mobilised within days.

Families of the kidnapped Israelis are terrified for their safety. Avichai Brodetz, a farmer from Kibbutz Kfar Aza whose wife and three children were taken captive to Gaza, set up a camp outside the Israeli army headquarters to focus attention on their plight.

"The first thing that needs to happen is the release of the women and children," he told reporters.

Hamas's armed wing said nine captives including four foreigners had been killed overnight due to Israeli air strikes. It has previously threatened to kill one hostage for every building Israel strikes without warning.

Israel's attacks on Gaza failed to halt Hamas missile strikes deep into Israeli cities. Air raid sirens wailed in central Israel on Saturday and rockets smashed into a greenhouse in Ashkelon and wounded four people at a kibbutz.

The only route out of Gaza not under Israeli control is a checkpoint with Egypt at Rafah. Egypt officially says its side is open, but traffic has been halted for days because of Israeli strikes. Egyptian security sources said the Egyptian side is being reinforced and Cairo has no intention of accepting a mass influx of refugees.

A US State Department official said the United States was working to open the crossing on Saturday to let some people out, and had been in touch with Palestinian-Americans who want to leave Gaza. Washington later said it had told its citizens to try to reach the crossing.

Countries and aid agencies have sent supplies to Egypt but have so far been unable to bring them into Gaza. Israel says nothing can enter through Rafah without its coordination.

Israel says its evacuation order is a humanitarian gesture to protect residents while it roots out Hamas fighters. The United Nations says so many people cannot be safely moved inside the besieged enclave without causing a humanitarian disaster.

Hamas has vowed to fight until the last drop of blood, and says the order to leave the north of the enclave is a trick to force residents to give up their homes.

Hezbollah warning

The violence in Gaza has been accompanied by the deadliest clashes at Israel's northern border with Lebanon since 2006, raising fears of war spreading to another front.

Lebanon's armed Hezbollah movement, a close ally of Iran like Hamas, said it had fired at five Israeli outposts in the disputed Shebaa Farms area with guided missiles and mortar bombs.

Reuters saw missiles fired at an Israeli army post and heard shelling from Israel and gunfire.

Israel's Kan radio reported five border villages had been put under lockdown in response to a suspected incursion from Lebanon.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi said Israel was "trying not to be drawn into a two-front war" and warned Hezbollah to stay out of the fighting.

"We hope Hezbollah won't, de facto, bring about the destruction of Lebanon, because if there is a war there the result will be no less," he said, alluding to long-standing Israeli threats to launch heavy strikes on the country in a bid to stem launches of Hezbollah's extensive missile arsenal.

Washington is also determined to ensure Iran and Iran-backed groups such as Lebanon's Hezbollah do not enter the conflict.

- This story was originally published by Reuters