'We were all panicking' feels safe Nowhere as bombs keep falling, say Gaza residents

There were places in Gaza where, even in times of conflict, Palestinians once felt marginally safer than elsewhere.

- Peter Beaumont

Urban centres, the calculation went, were better placed to avoid bombardment than the periphery of cities, and the peripheries were safer than the rural areas, where Israeli tanks could easily enter.

Buildings facing the sea, vulnerable to shelling from the Israeli war ships just visible on the horizon, were also to be avoided, along with the tallest buildings often thought by Israel to be used by Hamas for observation points.

Yesterday that message was reinforced as Palestinian residents of the city of Beit Lahiya in the northern region of the Gaza Strip, which had been hit hard in previous conflicts, said Israeli planes dropped flyers warning them to evacuate their homes and to head to the "known shelters".

"Anyone who is near Hamas terrorists will put their lives in danger," the flyers said. "Adhering to IDF [Israel Defense Forces] instructions will prevent you from being exposed to danger." Residents in Beit Lahiya, however, said they had already been hit by airstrikes before the warnings were delivered.

As Palestinians lined up outside bakeries and grocery stores in Gaza yesterday after spending the night surrounded by the ruins of neighbourhoods darkened by a near-total power outage, those "rules" no longer held.

Israel has pounded neighbourhoods once thought of as relatively safe such as central Gaza City's al-Rimal, one of the wealthier neighbourhoods. It is now littered with rubble and shattered trees after dozens of airstrikes.

Razan, who was forced to flee her family home in al-Rimal earlier this week, told the Guardian: "There was violent bombing everywhere.

They started with tower blocks, then the destruction of all areas, including ours, which was considered one of the safe areas.

"It's full of shops, residential towers and business offices. All of them have now turned into ashes and the people have no houses.