Gaza City, Gaza - Fears a growing over the dire humanitarian situation faced by millions of Palestinians trapped in the heavily bombarded enclave, as Israel continues its bombing campaign ahead of a full-scale invasion.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel Monday ahead of a looming Israeli ground offensive and emphasized that "civilians should not have to suffer for Hamas's atrocities".

Israel declared war on the Palestinian Islamist group a day after waves of its fighters broke through the barrier on October 7, killing more than 1,400 people, most of them civilians.

Reeling from the deadliest attack in its history, Israel unleashed a relentless bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip that flattened neighborhoods and killed thousands.

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As Israel continued to mass troops along the Gaza border ahead of a major offensive, the Arab League's chief called for an immediate end to military operations and for safe corridors to allow in aid.

The entire region was "on the verge of the abyss", warned UN chief António Guterres, as cross-border fires also intensified between Israel and the Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah group, which has warned of retaliation if Israeli forces invade Gaza.

The UN Security Council is currently meeting to discuss the crisis, with diplomats looking at two competing draft resolutions.

One was put forward by Russia and urges a ceasefire and delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, but makes no mention of Hamas. Another resolution sponsored by Brazil calls the Hamas attacks on October 7 that triggered the war an act of terrorism, but it also "strongly urges" provision of essential goods to Palestinian civilians, as well as "humanitarian pauses" to let in humanitarian aid workers.

The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees has warned that the Gaza Strip faces an "unprecedented human catastrophe" if supply of water and other vital supplies is not restored by the Israeli authorities.

To be adopted, a resolution needs at least nine votes on the 15-member body, and cannot be vetoed by any of the five permanent members – the US, Britain, China, France and Russia.

Some one million people have fled from the northern Gaza Strip to the south of the coastal enclave ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths says.

"My main concerns right now [...] is to get aid into Gaza," Griffiths said on Monday.

It was of utmost importance to help the people on the move as well as those already in southern Gaza, "because they won't get out of Gaza," he said.

Griffiths plans to travel to Cairo on Tuesday to negotiate with senior Egyptian officials on opening the southern border with Gaza for aid deliveries.

He said the UN was engaged in "hourly" negotiations with Israel about aid access. His main message was "urgency" in view of the increasingly poor supply situation in the Gaza Strip, he said.

In Gaza, scenes of panic, anger and despair were at every corner. Laden with suitcases, plastic bags or even mattresses, inhabitants of northern Gaza were frantically fleeing to the south after Israel's warning to vacate before its major offensive.

But the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people was putting further pressure on already stretched resources in the densely populated south where there is no escape valve.

"No electricity, no water, no internet. I feel like I'm losing my humanity," said Mona Abdel Hamid, who fled Gaza City to Rafah in the south of the enclave, where she is staying with strangers.

Gazans are effectively trapped, with Israeli-controlled crossings closed and Egypt also having shut the Rafah border in the south.

Any departure of Palestinians from Gaza is a sensitive issue, with Arab nations fearing that it could lead to permanent expulsion, something which Blinken has also categorically rejected.

Foreigners have flocked to Rafah in the hopes of being let out, after Blinken said he was confident the crossing "will be open" for aid into the strip.

Reports had suggested that Egypt was blocking the passage of Gazans with foreign passports until relief supplies are allowed in.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office dashed hopes of a deal, saying in a statement on Monday that "there is currently no ceasefire and humanitarian aid in Gaza in return for removing foreigners".

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, slammed Israel stated policy of conditioning aid on the return of hostages taken by Hamas.

"Neither should be conditional," she insisted in a video posted by the UN.

"They have said they want to destroy Hamas, but their current trajectory is going to destroy Gaza."

According to the health ministry in Gaza, at least 2,750 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's attacks on the besieged strip, with the number of injured inching towards 10,000.

Hospitals in the Palestinian coastal enclave had only 24 hours' worth of fuel left to run emergency generators, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late on Sunday.

A shutdown of the generators would put thousands of patients at "immediate risk," the agency warned in its latest situation report.