Gaza faces descent into chaos, warns UN chief

Israel's military continued its heavy bombardment in Gaza yesterday as its war with Hamas hit the two-month mark and the humanitarian crisis threatened a breakdown of public order.

- Harriet Sherwood

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they had struck about 250 targets in Gaza over a 24-hour period ending yesterday morning.

In a residential part of Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the IDF has told people to relocate to avoid areas likely to be bombed, about 20 people were killed in airstrikes that hit two homes. Women and children were among the dead, according to witnesses.

"We live in fear every moment, for our children, ourselves, our families," said Dalia Abu Samhadaneh, who is living in Rafah with her family after fleeing Khan Younis. "We live with the anxiety of expulsion." She is among 1.87 million people - more than 80% of the population of 2.3 million - who have fled their homes, according to the UN. Many families have been displaced multiple times, and are living in tents and 24 → makeshift shelters. More than 17,000 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 46,000 wounded, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Many more are trapped under rubble.

About 350 Palestinians had been killed and 1,900 injured in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.

At the northern end of the Gaza Strip, there was heavy fighting in the Jabaliya refugee camp. The IDF said its troops had raided a militant compound, killing "a number" of fighters.

Al Jazeera said one of its journalists had lost 22 members of his family in a strike in Jabaliya.