Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed at least 324 people in the past 24 hours alone, including 126 children, the Hamas-controlled health ministry said. There were 88 women among those killed, it said, adding that 1,018 were wounded over that period.

In Israel, pathologists and others at a military base worked through the Jewish Sabbath to identify the more than 1,300 Israelis and others killed in Hamas's Oct. 7 assault. The Gaza Health Ministry said on Saturday that over 2,200 people have been killed in the territory, including 724 children and 458 women.

Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of US warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border and drilled for what Israel said would be a campaign by air, land and sea to dismantle the Palestinian Hamas group.

Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City in the north and renewed warnings on social media, ordering more than 1 million Gaza residents to move south. The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a concentrated campaign against Hamas in the north, including in what it said were underground hideouts in Gaza City. Hamas urged people to stay in their homes.

The UN and aid groups say such a rapid exodus along with Israel’s siege of the 40-kilometre-long (25-mile-long) territory would cause untold human suffering.

The World Health Organization said the evacuation "could be tantamount to a death sentence” for the more than 2,000 patients in northern hospitals, including newborns in incubators and people in intensive care. Gaza's hospitals are expected to run out of fuel for emergency generations within two days, according to the UN, which said that that would endanger the lives of thousands of patients.

Palestinians queue to refill jerrycans with water in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip, on Saturday. AFP

Gaza’s 2.3 million civilians faced a deepening struggle for food, water and safety Sunday and braced for a looming invasion a week after Hamas launched a deadly assault on Israel. While hundreds of thousands of Gaza residents sought to heed Israel’s order to evacuate roughly the northern half of the territory, others huddled at hospitals in the north.

Gaza was already in a humanitarian crisis due to a growing shortage of water and medical supplies caused by the Israeli blockade, which has also forced electrical plants to shut down without fuel. With some bakeries closing, residents complained of being unable to buy bread for their children.

In Gaza City, Haifa Khamis al-Shurafa crowded into a car with six family members, fleeing to the south in the darkness.

"We don’t deserve this,” Shurafa said, before leaving her home city. "We didn’t kill anyone.”

Israel's evacuation directive covers an area with 1.1 million residents, about half of Gaza's population. The Israeli military said "hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had heeded the warning and headed south. It gave Palestinians a six-hour window that ended on Saturday afternoon to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes.

Hundreds of relatives of the estimated 150 people captured by Hamas in Israel and taken to Gaza gathered outside the Israeli Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv, demanding their release.

Palestinian children wounded in Israeli strikes are brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. AP

"This is my cry out to the world: Please help bring my family, my wife and three kids,” said Avihai Brodtz of Kfar Azza. Many expressed anger toward the government, saying they still have no information about their loved ones.

In a nationally broadcast address Saturday night, Israel’s chief military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, accused Hamas of trying to use civilians as human shields.

"We are going to attack Gaza City very broadly soon,” he said, without giving a timetable for the attack.

Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza.

Ahead of the expected ground offensive, Israelis living near the Gaza border, including residents of the town of Sderot, continued to be evacuated. Militants in Gaza have been firing heaving rocket barrages reaching deep into Israel, as Israeli warplanes pound Gaza.

Associated Press