Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was filmed visiting Israeli troops stationed at the Gaza border, speaking to soldiers and asking them if they are ready.
Click here for all the latest updates on the Israel-Hamas conflict on our live blogIsraeli forces have surrounded the Gaza Strip, announcing their readiness for 'significant combat operations' after launching preliminary raids into Gaza overnight into Saturday.
Ahead of the anticipated ground invasion of Gaza, which has seen some 400,000 civilians displaced, he urged onlookers to 'remember how this started - all of this is Hamas made', he said. Palestinians and some Egyptian officials fear that Israel ultimately hopes to push Gaza's people out through the southern border with Egypt.
Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, said in a televised speech that Palestinians would not leave Gaza or the West Bank and migrate to Egypt anyway. The BBC identified at least 12 bodies in the footage, mostly women and children - some of whom appear to be as young as two to five.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 and planned to flee south in the morning.
Mohammad Abu Selim, general director of Shifa Hospital, confirmed that massive crowds had thronged Gaza's largest hospital and the courtyard outside. 'Merkava' battle tanks muster today at a gathering site at an undisclosed location along the border with Gaza Near the coast, the only tap water is contaminated with Mediterranean Sea water because of the lack of sanitation facilities. Mohammed Ibrahim, 28, said his neighbors in Gaza City have taken to drinking the salt water.
Israel, stunned by the mass killings and the capture of 150 hostages, has vowed to destroy Hamas and launched strikes that have killed more than 2,200 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians. The Israeli military today confirmed it had killed two top Hamas commanders. Murad Abu Murad, the head of the terror group's aerial operations, was killed over the past day when fighter jets struck an operational centre.
A man pushes a stroller past debris as residents of Gaza City begin to evacuate following an Israeli warning READ MORE - Thousands of pro-Palestine supporters began their march through London as Met Police warn: Support Hamas and you will be arrested Israel was accused of breaking international law over the sudden order to leave, with aid agencies and the UN warning such an unprecedented evacuation was impossible.
'The problem is that Hamas themselves are blocking the Palestinians from reaching the south,' she told Times Radio. 'They're putting roadblocks. They are physically stopping them from going south and this is a real problem.' A fire burns as Palestinian rescue teams work under the rubble of a collapsed building following an Israeli strike, in Khan Yunis in southern GazaA picture from the Israeli city of Sderot shows black dust and smoke ascending over the border in the Palestinian Gaza Strip
Relatives, colleagues and loved ones mourn at the funeral ceremony of Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Lord Darroch predicted the Israeli ground offensive would fail to eliminate Hamas and warned the next generation of Palestinian fighters were 'already being radicalised'.
It came as the RAF made two flights from Tel Aviv early this morning and late yesterday as part of an effort to evacuate Britons from Israel. It follows criticism of the government's 'slow' response. 'As Israel pursues its legitimate right, to defending its people and to trying to ensure that this never happens again, it is vitally important that all of us look out for civilians, and we're working together to do exactly that,' Mr Blinken said before heading to the United Arab Emirates for similar discussions.
Mr Blinken met his Saudi Arabian counterpart, Prince Faisal bin Farhan , in Riyadh as he began a third day of intense Middle East diplomacy aimed at preventing the Israel-Hamas war from expanding Palestinians wait to buy bread outside a bakery in Gaza, where water is running out and there is a power blackoutA crying woman carries a body bag through Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike
'I don't know if I've got any more tears left,' he said. 'I'm exhausted, and I just want to approach whoever can hear me in the international community. Please bring back my baby girls.'Alana Zeitchik, who lives in New York, said a half-dozen of her cousins were snatched from a kibbutz. They were known to be alive as of Friday morning, she said.
Senior EU officials and Israeli president Isaac Herzog were forced to seek cover in protected shelters as air-raid sirens sounded across Tel Aviv.
READ MORE - Israelis raze Palestinian pizzeria to the ground after it used picture of kidnapped grandmother in mocking advert Advertisement Both the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have urgently called on Israel to revoke the evacuation order, saying it will result in a humanitarian disaster whether people can flee or not.
The group, named Doctors Without Borders in English, is a charity that provides humanitarian medical care. With a military siege in place, humanitarian organisations 'will not be able to assist such a massive displacement of people in Gaza'. US President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly given staunch support for Israel, said that addressing the humanitarian crisis in Gaza was a 'priority'.
The United Nations said it had been informed of the order shortly before midnight but as thousands of people streamed southwards in cars and on foot, the Israeli army admitted that the evacuation would 'take time'.
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