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More than 423,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations said, following heavy Israeli bombardments in retaliation for Hamas's attacks, AFP reported.

As of late Thursday, the number of displaced in Gaza rose by 84,444 people to reach 423,378, the UN humanitarian agency OCHA said in a statement sent on Friday.

The announcement came as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip in response to Saturday's surprise attack, the deadliest since the country's creation in 1948.

Hamas gunmen swept into small towns, kibbutzim and a music festival in the desert, indiscriminately killing more than 1,200 people and taking about 150 hostages into Gaza.

Israel has retaliated by raining air and artillery strikes on Gaza -- -- a densely populated enclave of 2.3 million people, flattening buildings and killing more than 1,400 people.

Israel has also prepared for a possible ground invasion of the Palestinian territory.

"Heavy Israeli bombardments, from the air, sea and land, have continued almost uninterrupted," OCHA said in its update.

"Multiple residential buildings in densely populated areas have been targeted and destroyed during the past 24 hours."

It said more than 270,000 people -- two-thirds of the displaced -- have sought shelter in schools run by the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.