Polish MFA: voting in Israel will not take place due to war

"For the safety of our citizens, taking into account the fact that the State of Israel is in a state of war and the consequences resulting from threats and restrictions on gatherings in force... it was necessary to recognize these risks and respond to them adequately," it said in a statement following publication of a draft amendment to the voting district regulation on the government's legislative website.

Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said earlier this week that 1,145 Polish citizens had registered to vote in Israel.

"Unfortunately... voting on the territory of Israel will not take place. It will be possible to vote in Poland and in other countries where voting will take place," foreign ministry spokesman Łukasz Jasina told Reuters.

Israel formed an emergency unity government on Wednesday as its jets pounded Gaza and tanks massed around the densely populated Palestinian enclave while Hamas militants said they were still fighting on Israeli territory following their shock weekend incursion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to form a war cabinet with former defence minister and centrist opposition party leader Benny Gantz and focus entirely on the conflict, a joint statement from Gantz's National Unity party said.

Israel's death toll rose to 1,200 with over 2,700 wounded, its military said, from Hamas militants' hours-long rampage after breaching the fence enclosing Gaza on Saturday.

U.S. President Joe Biden has issued a warning seemingly aimed at Hamas' Iranian supporters not to exploit the Gaza conflagration to start a wider Middle East war.

Israeli reprisal strikes on blockaded Gaza have killed 1,100 people and wounded 5,339, Gaza's Health Ministry said. Some 535 residential buildings had been destroyed leaving around 250,000 homeless, Hamas officials said. Most of the displaced were in U.N.-designated shelters, others huddling in shattered streets.

The group's armed wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, said it was still fighting inside Israel on Wednesday. Israel deployed tanks and armoured vehicles just north of Gaza where the clashes were reported, but had no immediate comment on the Hamas claim.

Later in the day, alerts warning of incoming aircraft were issued across northern Israel, well removed from Gaza in the south, but the Israeli military subsequently said these may have been a malfunction.

A Reuters TV crew saw a house hit by an apparent projectile near Metulla in Israel's far north, close to the border with south Lebanon where the heavily armed Iran-backed Hezbollah group is active.

Hamas's armed wing said it had targeted the northern Israeli coastal city of Haifa with an R60 rocket. There were no immediate reports of casualties after sirens sounded in Haifa and nearby towns.

Israel has vowed swift punishment for the deadliest Palestinian militant attack in its 75-year history, which left corpses strewn around a music festival and a kibbutz community.

The military said dozens of its fighter jets struck more than 200 targets in a neighbourhood of Gaza City overnight that it said had been used by Hamas to launch its attacks.

"We started the offensive from the air, later on we will also come from the ground," Defence Minister Yoav Gallant told soldiers near the fence on Tuesday.

Israel has put Gaza under "total siege" to stop food and fuel reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid. Hamas media said on Wednesday electricity went out after the only power station stopped working.

With Palestinian rescue workers overwhelmed, others in the crowded coastal strip joined the search for bodies in rubble.

"I was sleeping here when the house collapsed on top of me," one man cried as he and others used flashlights on the stairs of a building hit by missiles to find anyone trapped.

The Israeli military said its troops had killed at least 1,000 Palestinian gunmen who infiltrated from Gaza and the Chief of the General Staff met commanders to discuss their next steps.

"Wherever there are Hamas leaders - the IDF strikes with precision and power," it said, referring to Israel's military.