Hundreds of thousands of Gaza Strip residents in the north are moving to the south ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion.

Palestinian men, women and children loaded up cars and trucks with mattresses and their belongings.

Others walked, dragging suitcases and holding onto their children.

More than a million people live in the area where Israel on Friday announced that civilians had 24 hours to evacuate.

As up to 300,000 Israeli soldiers massed on the border, Israel extended the evacuation deadline several times.

Still, many Palestinians refused to leave their homes, reportedly afraid that they could get killed or wounded on the escape routes, the Washington Post reported.

A blast hit a convoy on an evacuation route in Gaza, killing a number of people including children, on Friday.

Ahmed Okal, 43, who lives in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, said he was afraid that civilians traveling south might be targeted with airstrikes.

6 Palestinians flee their houses amid Israeli strikes after Israel’s call for more than 1 million civilians in northern Gaza to move south. REUTERS

“I am definitely afraid, very afraid, but I will not risk the lives of my wife and children on the way to the south,” he said, referring to reports that some of those fleeing were killed in an airstrike.

“Let us die inside our homes,” he said. “The road is dangerous.”

Hamas has told Gaza residents to stay at home.

6 Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians made their way from northern Gaza via two evacuation routes. AP

Israeli military claimed that Hamas had set up blockades to keep Gazans evacuating Gaza City and the north, although it is unclear if massive traffic jams are what is clogging escape routes.

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“They have time to move south, they have to start moving,” Israel Defense Forces spokesman Richard Hecht said Saturday morning.

“We understand this will take time,” he added, but declined to say if, or for how long, the deadline for the evacuation would be extended again.

6 While thousands fled northern Gaza, many residents refused to leave, fearing they’d be hit by Israeli strikes like the one that hit a convoy Friday. MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Videos verified by CNN showed devastating scenes of extensive destruction after Friday’s blast on Salah Al-Deen Street.

Numerous bodies, including those of children, were seen on a truck that appears to have been used to carry people away from Gaza City.

Badly burned and damaged cars were also seen in the videos.

6 Parents lugging their children and what belongings they could carry with them started leaving northern Gaza. AP

Israel’s military said they could not confirm reports of a strike at the location.

United Nations officials deemed the order to evacuate 1.1 million people in a single day “impossible.”

Another Gaza City resident, Rawan Abu Hamda, 41, attempted to evacuate on one of the escape routes but turned back for home when she heard reports about Friday’s strike that hit civilians trying to leave.

She told the Washington Post that hundreds of other families have also stayed in her neighborhood, many sheltering near al-Shifa hospital.

They are hoping the hospital won’t be targeted by airstrikes — although the ceiling of the nursery department collapsed on Oct. 9 after shelling nearby.

6 Gaza residents loaded up their cars and trucks with matttresses and some belongings as they prepared to evacuate northern Gaza. MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The Israeli military extended the evacuation deadline for Gaza City’s main hospital by an additional 10 hours Saturday as a ground invasion targeting Hamas terrorists loomed — but medics there refused to budge.

Worst attack on Israel in 50 years: How we got here

2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip over three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.

2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.

2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.

2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.

2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years.

Over 1,300 Israelis are dead, more than 3,000 are wounded and at least 100 were taken hostage, with the death toll expected to rise after Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets and sent dozens of militants into Israeli towns.

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Hamas terrorists were seen taking female hostages and parading them down the street in horrifying videos.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced “We are at war” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”

Gaza health officials report at least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed and more than 6,000 injured.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society “cannot evacuate the hospital,” the group said in a defiant statement publicizing its intent to ignore the new deadline of 9 a.m. ET.

“Al Quds Hospital is offering life-saving services to a large number of Palestinian patients and wounded … in addition to hundreds of civilians who took refuge” there, the PRCS added.

With wires