Vast areas of Gaza are in ruins and its 2.4 million people face severe shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine, alleviated only by the limited arrival of aid trucks.
“Now there is real hunger,” said Nour Ismail, who was waiting for food to be delivered in the southern city of Rafah.
“My children are dying of hunger.”
According to the United Nations, an estimated 1.9 million Gazans have been displaced, with many fleeing southward and hiding in shelters or makeshift tents in the bitter cold, even as the fighting draws closer.
Netanyahu told Likud party members on Monday that he was ready to support the voluntary migration of civilians from the Gaza Strip, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
He reportedly told party members, “Our problem is not whether exit should be allowed or not, but whether there will be countries that wish to exit”.
Hamas rejected any such discussion as “absurd”. Palestinians “refuse to be deported and displaced”, it said in a statement. “Deportation cannot happen and there is no other option than to remain on our land.”
The Gaza war has heightened regional tensions between, on the one hand, Israel and its ally the United States, and, on the other, Iran-backed armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.