Israel's military pounded Gaza City Wednesday prior to a planned takeover, with another 123 people killed in the last day according to the Gaza health ministry, while Hamas held further talks with Egyptian mediators.

The 24-hour death toll was the worst in a week and added to the massive fatalities from the nearly two-year war that has shattered the enclave housing more than 2mn Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated an idea — also enthusiastically floated by US President Donald Trump — that Palestinians should simply leave.

Arabs and many world leaders are aghast at the idea of displacing the Gaza population, which Palestinians say would be like another "Nakba" (catastrophe) when hundreds of thousands fled or were forced out during a 1948 war.

Israel's planned re-seizure of Gaza City — which it took in the early days of the war before withdrawing — is probably weeks away, officials say. That means a ceasefire is still possible though talks have been floundering and conflict still rages.

Israeli planes and tanks bombed eastern areas of Gaza City heavily, residents said, with many homes destroyed in the Zeitoun and Shejaia neighbourhoods overnight. Al-Ahli hospital said 12 people were killed in an air strike on a home in Zeitoun.

Tanks also destroyed several houses in the east of Khan Younis in south Gaza too, while in the centre Israeli gunfire killed nine aid-seekers in two separate incidents, Palestinian medics said.

Eight more people, including three children, have died of starvation and malnutrition in Gaza in the past 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said. That took the total to 235, including 106 children, since the war began.

Hamas chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya's meetings with Egyptian officials in Cairo Wednesday were to focus on stopping the war, delivering aid and "ending the suffering of our people in Gaza," Hamas official Taher al-Nono said in a statement.

Egyptian security sources said the talks would also discuss the possibility of a comprehensive ceasefire that would see Hamas relinquish governance in Gaza and concede its weapons.

A Hamas official told Reuters the group was open to all ideas if Israel ends the war and pulls out. However, "Laying down arms before the occupation is dismissed is impossible," the official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters.

Netanyahu's plan to expand military control over Gaza has heightened global outcry over the widespread devastation, displacement and hunger in the enclave.

Twenty-four nations this week decried the "unimaginable levels" of suffering and urged Israel to allow unrestricted aid.

Israel's offensive in Gaza since October 2023 has killed more than 61,722 Palestinians, according to local health officials.