GAZA/JERUSALEM/ISMAILIA, Egypt, Oct 16 (Reuters) – Diplomatic efforts failed to get aid to the besieged Gaza Strip on Monday, and Israel ordered the evacuation of its villages in a strip of territory near its border with Lebanon, raising fears the war could spread to a new front.

Israel has vowed to annihilate the Hamas movement that rules Gaza, after Hamas fighters burst across the barrier to Israel on Oct. 7, gunning down 1,300 Israelis, mainly civilians, in the deadliest day in Israel’s 75-year-old history.

It has put Gaza, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total blockade and pounded it with unprecedented air strikes, and is widely expected to launch a ground assault. Gaza authorities say more than 2,800 people have been killed there, around a quarter of them children, and more than 10,000 wounded are in hospitals desperately short of supplies.

According to the United Nations, a million Gazans have already been driven from their homes. Power is out, sanitary water is scarce, and the last fuel for hospital emergency generators could be used up within a day.