Egypt said on Sunday it had stepped up diplomatic efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza and its President told visiting US secretary of state Antony Blinken that Israel's bombardment of the territory was disproportional.

"The reaction went beyond the right to self-defence, turning into collective punishment for 2.3 million people in Gaza," President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said of Israel's retaliatory strikes for Hamas militants' attacks a week ago.

Aid from several countries has been building up in Egypt's Sinai peninsula due to a failure to reach a deal enabling its safe delivery to Gaza along with evacuations of some foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Israeli bombardments on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing into Egypt, the main crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel, have disrupted operations there.

There is alarm in Egypt over the prospect that residents in Gaza could be displaced by Israel's siege and bombardment.

Like other Arab states, it has said Palestinians should stay on their lands and that it is working to secure the delivery of aid.