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“We were afraid to stay at home in case the bombs hit us – and we were afraid to move and be exposed to them,” said Abu Ali Al Zaeem, a resident of Gaza's Al Karama neighbourhood.
This was the dilemma facing Gaza residents desperate to leave their homes as Israeli warplanes targeted the area overnight on Tuesday.
Entire blocks lay reduced to rubble in Gaza on Wednesday morning.
Gaza officials said more than 1,200 people, including many civilians, have been killed in Israel's air and artillery strikes on the Palestinian enclave.
These followed the surprise attack by Hamas on Israeli settlements on Saturday. On Wednesday, the Israeli army said 1,300 bodies had been recovered, including many civilians.
In Al Karama, as midnight passed on Tuesday, people walked the streets, some shouting for ambulances, while others appealed for help.
Fathers held sleeping children tight, while mothers carrying only the bare essentials explained to their young sons and daughters why they had been taken from their beds in the dead of night.
Others waved down passing vehicles, desperate to escape the area and reach the centre of Gaza city and relative safety.
Resident Abu Ali said he could not contact relatives by phone as he tried to reach a safe place.
“It was horrible. The sound of bombing made me believe that survival would be a miracle,” he said.
Elderly and infirm residents had also to be evacuated.
“I couldn't go on foot, because my parents can't walk. They are old and sick,” Mr Al Zaeem, 48, who lives in the area with his wife, children and parents, told The National.
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A Palestinian girl holds two children as she stands on a street in Gaza city as Israel continues to launch air strikes. AFP -
Smoke plumes billow during Israeli air strikes on Gaza city. AFP -
A Palestinian girl following an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis. Reuters -
Palestinians survey the rubble of a house destroyed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
A Palestinian woman, covered in dust, carries a child in Gaza city. AFP -
A Palestinian man with a child outside al-Shifa hospital in Gaza city. AFP -
Israeli soldiers walk through Kibbutz Be'eri. Days earlier Hamas militants killed more than a hundred civilians near the border with Gaza. Getty Images -
A wounded Palestinian man Ala Al-Kafarneh, who survived Israeli strikes, attends a hospital in Gaza city. Mr Al-Kafarneh lost his pregnant wife and several members of his family in air strikes after they fled Beit Hanoun. Reuters -
Supermarket shelves containing dry goods are left depleted in Tel Aviv. Getty Images -
An injured Palestinian man arrives at Al-Shefa hospital in Gaza city. EPA -
A boot lies on the ground outside a damaged house in Be'eri, Israel. EPA -
An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer near the border with Gaza in southern Israel. AFP -
Palestinian mourners during the funerals of Al-Agha family members killed in Israeli strikes in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. Reuters -
Family and friends of May Naim, 24, who was killed by Palestinians militants at a party near the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, during her funeral in Gan Haim, Israel. Getty Images -
Palestinian children in Khan Younis fill bottles with water from public taps during the conflict with Israel. Reuters -
Men outside a morgue in Khan Yunis console a woman mourning loved ones killed in an Israeli air strike. AFP -
A Palestinian girl injured in Israeli strikes is taken to hospital in Gaza City. Reuters -
An Israeli woman is evacuated by paramedics following a rocket attack launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel, in Sderot. Reuters -
A man looks at the destruction in the ravaged Jabalia refugee camp, following overnight Israeli air strikes. AFP -
The daughter of Zakaria Abu Maamar, a member of Hamas's political office, at her father's funeral, after he was killed in an air strike in Khan Younis. Reuters -
A collapsed building after an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City. AFP -
Firefighters attend a burning building after an Israeli bombardment in Gaza City. AFP -
Women and children in Gaza City. AFP -
An Israeli army soldier passes a Merkava battle tank in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon. AFP -
An Israeli strike on the port of Gaza City. AFP -
Demonstrators outside the West Los Angeles Federal Building in California during a rally in support of Israel. AFP -
Mourners at the funeral of Palestinians killed in overnight Israeli shelling in Khan Younis in Gaza. AFP -
Israeli journalists take cover during a rocket attack from Gaza in the southern Israeli kibbutz of Kfar Aza near the border. AFP -
Palestinians rescue a young girl from the rubble of a destroyed residential building following an Israeli air strike. AP -
Mourners at the graveside of Eden Guez, who was killed as she attended a festival that was attacked by Hamas gunmen from Gaza. Reuters -
An Israeli fireman recovers after extinguishing cars set on fire by a rocket fired from Gaza. AP -
Smoke billows from a boat after a strike by Israel on the port of Gaza City. AFP -
Destroyed residential buildings in Gaza City. AP -
Rockets from Gaza launched towards Israel. Reuters -
A Palestinian woman sits among the rubble in the destroyed Al-Ramal neighborhood following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City. EPA -
Israeli soldiers in armoured vehicles near the northern town of Kiryat Shmona close to the border with Lebanon. AFP -
Buildings destroyed by Israeli strikes in Gaza city. Reuters -
Nicole Izsak, right, confronts a Palestinian supporter near the Israeli consulate in New York, claiming her cousin is being held hostage in Gaza. AFP -
The abandoned site of the Supernova music festival, besieged by Hamas militants in southern Israel. AFP -
An attack on the site by Hamas gunmen from Gaza left at least 260 people dead. Reuters -
A man carries a blood-stained flak jacket belonging to a Palestinian journalist, who was killed with two colleagues when an Israeli missile hit a hospital building while they were outside reporting, in Gaza city. Reuters -
An Israeli soldier holds a rescued dog as he takes position near a bomb shelter in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, southern Israel. Reuters -
Protesters chant and wave the Palestinian flag at a rally in Melbourne, Australia. Getty Images -
Israeli border police walk past a burnt-out car as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel, in Ashkelon, southern Israel. Reuters -
Palestinians amid the rubble following Israeli air strikes that razed a neighbourhood in Gaza city. AP -
Palestinians carry a wounded man at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city. EPA -
Palestinians inspect damage in the aftermath of Israeli strikes in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Reuters
Two days previously, his brother who lives in Al Shati camp at the centre of Gaza, had moved to stay with him with his family, after his area was targeted.
Mr Al Zaeem asked his son and brother to take other family members and try to walk until they found a safe place, while he stayed with his parents.
“The heavy shelling paralysed everyone,” he said.
Despite their fears about going into the open, Mr Al Zaeem and his family eventually left their home under the bombardment.
Meanwhile, rescuers have told of the difficulties they face.
“Crews cannot operate well because Israeli warplanes are holding back our work and delaying us from answering calls for help,” Mohammed Al Moghaeer, a civil defence officer, told The National.
The targeting of Al Karama resulted in hundreds of residents being forced out of their homes. Many do not yet know if they will be able to return.
Malak Ismael, 45, held a bag of passports, certificates and other important documents belonging to her family members, as she loaded her children into their car.
“At the start of the war, I prepared a bag of essentials and asked my children to do the same. I put all the bags next to the door so it would be easy to leave immediately,” she told The National.
Her daughter Yasmeen, 25, held the family's cat in a velvet box, the terrified animal trembling at the sound of each bomb.
“It is a soul, I can't leave it behind,” Yasmeen said of her pet.
