Israel readies ground invasion amid exodus

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Sunday to "demolish Hamas" as his military prepared to move into the Gaza Strip in search of Hamas militants whose deadly rampage through Israeli border towns shocked the world last weekend.

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Israel has told Gazans to evacuate the region's south, which hundreds of thousands I have already done in the enclave that is home to more than two million people, about half of the Gaza City.

Israel declared war on the Islamist group last Sunday, a day after waves of fighters broke through the heavily fortified border and shot, stabbed and burned to death more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Seven days of relentless bombing targeting those who masterminded the attack have flattened neighbourhoods and left at least 2,670 people dead in the Gaza Strip, the majority ordinary Palestinians, the health ministry there said.

Amid escalating tensions, US President Joe Biden on Saturday called Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority as the US began moving USS Dwight D Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (CSG) to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Inside besieged Gaza, where conditions are deteriorating and deaths from Israeli air strikes rising, civilians said they were not safe anywhere. Militant group Hamas, which runs Gaza, has told them to ignore Israel's message to move south.

Conditions were so atrocious that Palestinian health workers were storing bodies in ice cream freezer trucks because moving them to hospitals was too risky and cemeteries were full.

With fears of the conflict spilling over, US secretary of state Antony Blinken continued his rapid tour of Middle East states, seeking to prevent escalation and secure the release of 120 hostages Israel says were taken by Hamas back into Gaza.

Arab leaders stressed the need to protect Gaza civilians.