PALESTINIANS in besieged Gaza have been forced to scramble to find food, safety and water as many world leaders continue to ignore Israel’s crimes against humanity.

More than a million people have fled their homes ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion aimed at destroying Hamas after its fighters shocked Israel with its surprise attack last week.

Gaza’s supply of food, water and medicine supplies are almost at an end. 

Hospitals say that they are on the verge of collapse and unable to follow the order by Israeli authorities to evacuate patients. 

More than a week of devastating Israeli air strikes have demolished entire Palestinian neighbourhoods and, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, have killed about 2,670 Palestinians and left more than 9,600 wounded.

That makes this the deadliest of the five Gaza wars for both sides.

More than 1,400 Israelis have died in the conflict, making it the deadliest war for Israel since the 1973 conflict with Egypt and Syria.

Israel has ordered more than one million Palestinians — almost half the territory’s population — to move to Gaza’s south.

The military says that it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a major campaign against Hamas in the north, where it says the militants have extensive networks of tunnels and rocket launchers.

But aid agencies have said that it is impossible to comply with the order while Hamas has urged people to stay in their homes.

Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of paediatrics at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said that there were seven newborns in intensive care hooked up to ventilators and that evacuation “would mean death for them and other patients under our care.”

Mohammed Qandeel, a consultant at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, said: “All these patients are in danger of death if the electricity is cut off.”

Meanwhile, a man in Illinois has been charged with a hate crime and accused of fatally stabbing a six-year-old boy and seriously wounding a woman on Sunday in Plainfield, about 40 miles from Chicago.

Police allege he singled out the victims because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war in Gaza.