'See how we are dying': Palestinians flee relentless Israeli bombardment

Grabbing blankets and their meagre belongings, thousands of Palestinians have fled from the centre of besieged Gaza to the south to escape relentless Israeli bombings.

Donkey carts creaked with their belongings on Friday as they passed through the streets.

Families pushed babies in prams and led elderly relatives through the crowd, packing winter blankets for the road ahead.

"This is not a life: no water, no food, nothing," said Walaa al Medini, who had been wounded in an Israeli strike on her home in Gaza City and used a wheelchair.

"My daughter died in my lap, and I was rescued from under the rubble after three hours," she said. "Our house, along with everything around us, was destroyed."

She said she had not slept properly for 40 nights.

"My message to the world is for them to look at us, to see us, to see how we are dying. Why aren't they paying attention?".

Israel gave an ultimatum for Palestinians in the Bureij refugee camp to "leave immediately for their own security" and head towards Deir al Balah city further south.

'No safe place'

Israel's bombardment and ground invasion has displaced some 2.3 million Gazans, according to UN figures, over three-quarters of the population.

It has put most hospitals in the besieged enclave out of action. Nine remain partly functioning, the World Health Organization says.

At Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, medical staff rushed to find space for patients streaming through the doors on stretchers from another refugee camp in Al Maghazi.

In the packed hospital, they treated an injured boy on the floor. A baby screamed in a cradle on the ground, blood smeared across its tiny forehead.

The Health Ministry says more than 410 people had been killed in Israeli bombardment over 48 hours.

Parts of Gaza City have seen street-by-street combat between Israeli soldiers and Hamas fighters.

With swathes of Gaza reduced to rubble, the displaced have been forced into crowded shelters or tents, and are struggling to find food, fuel, water and medical supplies.

At the Bureij refugee camp, Salem Yussef planned to make the journey south to Rafah.

Displaced from Gaza City, he said he first took refuge at the Al Shifa hospital, then spent a month and a half at the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the besieged enclave.

Although Israel expelled most Palestinians towards the south to allegedly fight Hamas in the north, the Israeli army bombed many parts of the south, leaving nowhere safe in the blockaded enclave.

"They tell us it's safe, but there's no safe place," Yussef said.

He said he hoped Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "stops the crimes and killing of innocent people and stops claiming to hit [Hamas armed wing Ezzedine al Qassam Brigades] locations when he can't even reach them.

"I also hope he stops the killing of children and the destruction of people's homes over their heads," he said.

"This is wrong. Everything that Netanyahu is doing is wrong."

Israel has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and wounded over 52,600 others in its brutal war on the besieged Gaza. The Israeli death toll stands at more 1,100, which was revised down from 1,400.