Thousands of Palestinians flee

Gaza: Middle-class, well-educated, and hard-working, Ali Radwan is the sort of forward-thinking professional who was once the hope of a future Palestinian state.

But with Gaza on the brink of civil war, Radwan, and thousands like him are looking to flee.

"In Gaza nowadays there is no place for wise, educated people. They have no voice," Radwan said, as he prepared to leave..

In the streets around the offices of the management consultancy where he works in Gaza City, bursts of gun fire could be heard.

Rocket-propelled grenades crashed in the distance and the windows shook. A machinegun thudded off rounds in response.

Palestinian infighting, almost daily Israeli air strikes, and a steadily worsening economic situation triggered by an international aid boycott has made life unbearable for many Palestinians. Those who can are leaving.

European Union monitors at the Rafah border crossing from the Gaza Strip to Egypt say that more than 14,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza since Israel withdrew soldiers and colonists in 2005 and the rise to power of the Islamist Hamas five months later. In the past year alone, the average number of people leaving Gaza per day has doubled from 15 to 30.

The rising number of Palestinians seeking to emigrate has prompted occupied Jerusalem's Mufti, Mohammad Ahmad Hussain, to issue a fatwa prohibiting Palestinians from leaving Palestinian territories.

"Immigration from this blessed land is not permissible according to Islamic law," said the religious edict. "People who live in this land should not leave it for the invaders and occupiers."