As Israeli ground assault looms, civilians in Gaza search for food, water and safety

The latest:

• Israel drops leaflets over Gaza City, ordersmore than onemillion Palestinians to move south.
• Global Affairs Canada confirms the death of a fifth Canadian.
• UNsays rapid evacuation will cause untold human suffering.
• Israelis turnon the water in southern Gaza, says White House national security adviser.
• Israel must be preparedfor Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon, adviser to Israeli PM says.
• U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkensaysan Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is expected toreopen to allow humanitarian aid in.

Gaza's 2.3 million civilians faced a continuing struggle for food, water and safety on Sunday and braced for a looming Israeli invasion, eight daysafter Hamas militants launched a deadly assault on Israel. While hundreds of thousands sought to heed Israel's order to evacuate the north, others huddled at hospitals there.

Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of U.S. warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza's border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group. A week of blistering airstrikes have demolished entire neighbourhoods but failed to stem militant rocket fire into Israel.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,670 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted, more than in the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted over six weeks. That makes this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for both sides.

More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, the vast majority of them civilians killed in Hamas's Oct. 7 assault. This is the deadliest war for Israel since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.

Julie Sunday, the assistant deputy minister for consular, security and emergency management at Global Affairs Canada, confirmed on Sunday that afifth Canadian is among those killed during the violence and three others remain missing.

"It's an extremely tragic outcome," she told a media briefing in Ottawa, without providing details.

Israel dropped leaflets over Gaza City in the north and renewed warnings on social media, ordering more than onemillion Palestinians almost half the territory's population to move south. The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a major campaign against Hamas militants in the north, including in what it said were underground hideouts in Gaza City. Hamas urged people to stay in their homes.

Many Gazans have said they don't want to leave their homes,fearing a repeat of the "Nakba" or "catastrophe," when manyPalestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation.

The military said Sunday that it would refrain from targeting a single route south from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., again urging Palestinians to leave the north en masse. The military offered two corridors and a longer window the day before.

The UNand aid groups say such a rapid exodus, along with Israel's complete siege of the 40-kilometre-long coastal 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 generators within two days, according to the UN.

According to aWHO statementon Sunday, four hospitals in northern Gazaare "no longer functioning as a result of damage and targeting," while 21 hospitals have been instructed to evacuate by Israeli forces. Health-care workers in the region have refused to evacuate, citing a need to care for patients, elderly people, and people with disabilities who cannot easily leave.

Gaza was already in a humanitarian crisis due to a growing shortage of water and medical supplies caused by the Israeli siege, 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.

Late on Sunday,U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkensaid an Egyptian-controlled border crossing into Gaza is expected to reopen.

Hundreds of metric tons of aid from several countries have been held up in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula for days pending a deal for its safe delivery to Gaza and the evacuation of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing.

Blinken did not give a specific time for the crossing to reopen. Veteran U.S. diplomat David Satterfield, appointed on Sunday as a special envoy for Middle East humanitarian issues, will arrive in Egypt on Monday to work out the details, Blinken said.

Meanwhile, White House nationalsecurity adviser Jake Sullivan said in a CNN interview on Sundaythat Israeli officials have informed him that water pipes insouthern Gaza have been turned back on.

WATCH | Evacuation of north Gaza hospitals 'a violation of international law':

Gaza worst humanitarian catastrophe we've ever dealt with, says Palestine Red Crescent Society chief

11 months ago

Duration 7:25

Palestine Red Crescent Society director general Marwan Jilani joins Rosemary Barton Live to discuss his organization's efforts in Gaza. He says the destruction in Gaza is on a scale he has never seen before.

'We don't deserve this'

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."

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 Saturday afternoon to travel safely within Gaza along two main routes, but has not set a firm deadline for the evacuation.

Canadian Moe Nasser left the northern Gaza and arrived Saturday in Khan Younis, 15 kilometres from the southern Rafahborder crossing with Egypt. At some point during the day, he went to the crossingand was told to head back because it was closed.

'Nowhere to go'

"We're waiting for someone to tell us it's OK to cross. Otherwise, we have nowhere to go, no escape. It's the only exit point," he said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBC's Rosemary Barton Live.

The border crossing, controlled by Egypt, wasshuttered early Tuesday after Israeli airstrikes hit close to Gaza's side of it.

Egypt has yet to reach an agreement with Israel and Hamas to reopen the crossing to deliver medical supplies and other humanitarian aid to the territory.

Global Affairs Canada's Julie Sunday told reportersthere is "strong support" from Egypt forallowing Canadians to exit fromRafah.She expects any reopening for civilians will be a "short window," so those wishing to leave may want to move "close" to the border, if it'ssafe.

"Approximately 300 Canadians, permanent residents and their families have reached out to us for assistance and for support to exit Gaza," she said.

WATCH | UN warns evacuation risks'humanitarian consequences':

'It's impossible': A million people have 24 hours to flee northern Gaza | About That

11 months ago

Duration 4:09

Israel told 1.1 million Palestinians to evacuate northern Gaza within 24 hours, ahead of a seemingly imminent ground invasion. The United Nations says the massive evacuation will be 'impossible' without 'devastating humanitarian consequences.' Andrew Chang examines the difficulty of the undertaking.

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

"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 televised address Saturday night, Israel's chief military spokesperson, 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.

Ina statement issued Saturday, theIsraeli military said the invasion will be by land, air and sea.

"Our soldiers are going to risk their lives in very difficult house-to-house combat," where Hamas has "intertwined itself" in civilian neighbourhoods, Mark Regev, senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told CBC News.

Both Regev and Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, theinternational spokesperson for the Israel Defence Forces, have accused Hamas of hindering the movement of civilians in Gaza.

"We want Gazan civilians out of the combat zone. Hamas, however, has put up roadblocks and is preventing people from leaving, and has called on people to stay and become martyrs for their theology," Regev said.

The Israeli military said Sunday an airstrike in southern Gaza had killed a Hamas commander blamed for the killings at Nirim, one of several communities Hamas had attacked in southern Israel. Israel said it struck over 100 military targets overnight, including command centresand rocket launchers.

WATCH | 'They want us all to leave this place so it's taken over,' says Canadian trapped in Gaza:

'We are just waiting for a glimpse of hope,' says Canadian trapped in Gaza

11 months ago

Duration 6:01

Moe Nasser is a Canadian stuck in Gaza. He joined Rosemary Barton to discuss conditions on the ground in the city and his attempts to leave.

Israel threatens toclose Al Jazeera bureau

On Sunday, Israel's communications minister saidhe was seeking a possible closure of Al Jazeera's local bureau, and accused the Qatari news station of pro-Hamas incitement and of exposingIsraeli soldiers to potential attack from Gaza.

The proposal to shut down Al Jazeera had been vetted byIsraeli security officials and was being vetted by legal experts, Shloma Karhi said, adding that he would bring it to the cabinet later in the day.

Journalists in the region are navigating a volatile and dangerous situation, after Israeli shelling killed a Reuters videographer and injured six others including Al Jazeera reporters on the border in south Lebanon on Friday.

Israel has called up some 360,000 military reserves and massed troops and tanks along the border with Gaza. Israelis living near the Gaza border, including residents of the town of Sderot, continued to be evacuated. Militants in Gaza have fired over 5,500 rockets since the hostilities erupted, many reaching deep into Israel, as Israeli warplanes pound Gaza.

Fears of broader conflict

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin said late Saturday that the U.S. was moving a second carrier strike group, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the eastern Mediterranean, in a show of force meant to deter any allies of Hamas, such as Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, from seeking to widen the war.

"We don't want an escalation. We don't want to see this war spread to a two-front war, but we have to be prepared for it," said Mark Negev, adviser to the Israeli prime minister.

"I can tell you if we're attacked from Lebanon, if there is an escalation [and]war is declared, we will fight and we will win in the northern front as well."

Hamas remained defiant. In a televised speech Saturday, Ismail Haniyeh, a top official, said that "all the massacres" will not break the Palestinian people.

An Israeli airstrike near the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people and wounded another 80, Gaza health authorities said.

Most of the victims were women and children, the authorities said. Doctors from Kamal Edwan Hospital shared footage of charred and disfigured bodies.

It was not clear how many Palestinians remained in northern Gaza by Saturday afternoon, said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for the UNagency for Palestinian refugees. An estimated onemillion people have been displaced in Gaza in one week, she said.

At Gaza City's main hospital, al-Shifa, a crowd of men, women and children that medical officials estimated at 35,000 crammed into the hospital's lobby and bloodied hallways and under the trees on the hospital grounds, hoping the facility would be spared in the coming attack.

"People think this is the only safe space after their homes were destroyed and they were forced to flee," said Dr. Medhat Abbas, a Health Ministry official.

WATCH |Trapped in Gaza and bracing for an Israeli invasion:

Trapped in Gaza and bracing for an Israeli invasion

11 months ago

Duration 9:21

From dark apartments and makeshift shelters, Gaza residents tell CBC News theyre bracing for the worst as Israel warns to evacuate south before an expected ground offensive.