At least 13 foreign hostages held in the northern Gaza Strip have been killed in Israeli air strikes in the past 24 hours, Hamas's armed wing said Friday.
"Thirteen prisoners... including foreigners" were killed in five locations targeted by Israeli fighter jets, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said in a statement.
Israel has rained air and artillery strikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip -- a densely populated enclave of 2.4 million people -- flattening buildings and killing more than 1,500 people.
According to the Hamas media office in Gaza, at least 500 children are among the dead.
Israel's military on Friday called for all civilians of Gaza City, more than 1 million people, to relocate south within 24 hours, as it amassed tanks nearby ahead of an expected ground invasion after an attack by Hamas.
"Now is a time for war," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday as Israeli warplanes continued pounding Gaza in retaliation for the weekend attacks by Hamas that killed more than 1,300 Israelis, mostly civilians.
The Israeli military said it would operate significantly in Gaza City in the coming days and civilians should only return when advised.
More than 1,500 Palestinians have already been killed in retaliatory attacks.
"Civilians of Gaza City, evacuate south for your own safety and the safety of your families and distance yourself from Hamas who are using you as human shields," the military said.
Hamas rejected an Israeli order for 1.1 million residents to evacuate northern Gaza ahead of an expected ground incursion into the overcrowded Palestinian territory.
"Our Palestinian people reject the threat of the occupation (Israeli) leaders and its call for them to leave their homes and flee from them to the south or Egypt," the Islamist militant group said in a statement.
"We are steadfast on our land and in our homes and our cities. There will be no displacement," it said.
The United Nations said it considered it impossible for such a movement of people to take place "without devastating humanitarian consequences.
Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas which led the attacks on Saturday. A ground invasion of the narrow and densely populated Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people and under siege by Israel, poses a serious risk.
The U.N. Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said more than 400,000 people had fled their homes in Gaza and 23 aid workers had been killed since the start of Israeli retaliatory strikes in response to the deadly Hamas incursion. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said fuel powering emergency generators at hospitals in Gaza could run out within hours and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned food and fresh water were running dangerously low. "The human misery caused by this escalation is abhorrent, and I implore the sides to reduce the suffering of civilians," ICRC regional director Fabrizio Carboni said.
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