'When tanks crossed border, explosives fell from all directions'

Gaza City: The Israeli drones are driving me crazy. I go outside only to buy food, water, and medicine, or to recharge my cellphone at a nearby mosque that is powered by generators.

Inside my Gaza City apartment, electricity and phone lines are out. Heat is a luxury. We sleep with the windows open in case an Israeli shell lands nearby, which would shatter the glass.

All around Gaza City, this coastal strip's largest urban area, fighting has intensified since Israel launched its ground invasion on Saturday.

At the long bread lines, customers listen to their transistor radios while they wait.

When they hear of a Hamas missile striking Israel, cheering begins.

Others lash out at Arab states because of their alleged cooperation with Israel, some trade stories about the wounded and the dead, since the start of the assault, now in its 12th day.

Diplomatic moves

Many Gazans see no end in sight and say that unless there are high numbers of Israeli casualties, nothing will change despite the increasing calls for a cease-fire.

The sound of fighting could be heard throughout the city on Monday even as the efforts to forge a diplomatic solution moved ahead across the border in Israel. Since Saturday, when troops crossed the border, more than 20 family members - an aunt, uncle, four cousins, and their families - have been sharing our three bedroom apartment.

My cousin Anas reached our house following the invasion.

"Where is the rest of the family?" I asked him after he arrived, referring to my uncle and the rest of his children.

Anas said they had tried to flee, but the situation had been too difficult. Only after two hours did my uncle, Abu Khalid, and his family arrive.

He had been living east of Jabaliya, a refugee camp outside Gaza City where fighting has been heavy.

"I was forced to leave the house that I worked 30 years for," he told me. "I took my clothes and underwear and ID cards so I could be identified if killed in one of the explosions."

The moment Khalid reached my house, he entered one of the rooms and immediately fell asleep.

Exhausted

When he woke, he told me what he had been through.

"I didn't sleep for 48 hours because of the continuing shelling. Once the tanks came over the eastern border, the explosives began falling from all directions."

His wife also said the attacks were the worst they had suffered in years.

"The Israeli army is shelling mosques and ambulances without any sort of care. So we decided to flee and leave all of our possessions behind," she said.

Since the beginning of the assault, the streets have been empty except for funerals, ambulances and Palestinian press cars heading toward the scene of Israeli attacks.

A friend, Abu Ahmad, called me late at night, scared out of his wits.

He said his wife had been called by Israeli intelligence who played a recorded message for her.

It said: "To the civilians of Gaza, we are warning you not to carry any weapons and have weapons in your home. Otherwise we will bomb your house.... If you deal with terrorists, you will be our target."