Palestinian Australians fear for loved ones in Gaza

He has lived through four bombardments by Israeli forces before arriving in Australia in 2015, noting the ongoing pummelling in the last few days has left him deeply worried.

"With every phone call in the back of your mind you always know it might be the last one," the 52-year-old Perth accountant told AAP.

"My hands are tied and there's nothing I can do about it. You just want to give them support because there's nothing else you can do."

He said 35 immediate family members are all cowering in one home surviving on canned food and have managed to procure a small generator to provide electricity, but fuel is quickly running out along with water.

They are about seven kilometres from the upmarket Rimal district which was levelled a few days ago.

"It's been devastating, you feel hopeless and it's very hard to go on with your daily life when you know you might not hear their voice again."

Some of his former colleagues at PalTel, the major telecommunications company which was destroyed in recent days, have been killed.

"Every couple of hours you see that a friend of mine has died or his son and it's too many to comprehend or process at this time".

Israel launched retaliatory strikes on Gaza following the deaths of more than 1000 Israelis at the hands of Hamas militants who crossed into Israel to carry out attacks.

Over 1500 people have been killed in Gaza according to the health ministry including 500 children. Israeli air-strikes have also displaced about 340,000 people.

"This is by far the worst (military assault) ... there's indiscriminate bombardment with whole families buried under the rubble," he said

"Usually in previous wars, they (Israeli forces) would give warnings before bombarding buildings and now they're not."

For Raneem Emad, a feeling of dread over her family's safety has consumed her.

She has been staying in touch intermittently with her cousins on social media depending on the state of electricity which has been scarce.

"My youngest cousins have been like you know 'we might die' and that's a very scary thing to come to grips with that an Instagram message might be the last message that you send to them," the 19-year-old university student told AAP.

The Sydney resident visited her family in Gaza earlier this year and experienced one day of bombing in January.

"There's no bunkers, there's staying at home and praying. There's no safer areas because everyone is subjected to the same thing, the same suffering."

"I spoke to my grandmother yesterday, but that was only a two-minute phone call and it was a very resigned phone call. We both didn't know what to say to each other".

The situation for 19 Australians trapped in Gaza, including a family of four from Adelaide, is worsening as they face an imminent Israeli invasion and a lack of food, water and electricity.

"This might be my last message to anyone," a member of the family said in a letter to the federal government.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said 1600 people overall had registered across Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories for repatriation in what was an "extraordinary logistical exercise".

The United Nations says Israel has warned 1.1 million people in Gaza to evacuate but the coastal enclave has been blockaded since 2007 from Egypt on one side and Israel on the other.

It has appealed to the Israeli government to revoke the expulsion order as humanitarian corridors are set up.

When Sydney resident Ramia Abdo Sultan woke up earlier in the week, she found out 70 of her family members had been evacuated from their home in Gaza and her 25-year-old relative was dead.

Ms Sultan maintains the focus should remain on civilians rather than a political blame game.

"In the same way he condemned the actions of Hamas, the (Australian) prime minister should equally call out the siege of 2.3 million Palestinians living inside Gaza."

"The Palestinians inside of Gaza have nothing - hospitals and ambulances are being targeted as we speak."

Australian Associated Press