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Gaza Civilians Left Exposed In Israeli Invasion

The Associated Press

Smoke rises during an Israeli army operation in the Gaza Strip Sunday. Israel pummeled Palestinian militants from the air, sea and ground early Sunday after taking the risky decision to embark on a land invasion in the crowded, Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

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The Associated Press

Published: January 4, 2009

GAZA STRIP - With booms from artillery and airstrikes keeping them awake, the 10 members of Lubna Karam's family spent the night huddled in the hallway of their Gaza City home.

Earlier strikes shattered the living room windows, letting cold air pour in. The Karams haven't had electricity for a week and have run out of cooking gas. The family, including three small children younger than four, eats cold, canned beans.

"It's war food," said Karam, 28. "What else can we do?"

As Israel's offensive against Hamas moves from pinpointed airstrikes to ground fighting and artillery shelling, Gaza's civilians are increasingly exposed. Some two dozen civilians were killed within hours after the start of Israel's ground invasion Saturday night.

Israel says eight days of aerial bombardment, followed by the ground invasion, seek to undermine Hamas' ability to fire rockets at the Jewish state. So far, more than 500 Palestinians and four Israelis have been killed. Palestinian and U.N. officials say at least 100 Palestinian civilians are among the dead.

The ground offensives will put Israeli solders, Gaza militants and civilians in much closer quarters.

The guiding principle of Israel's ground invasion is to move in with full force and try to minimize Israeli casualties, Israeli military correspondent Alex Fishman wrote in the daily Yediot Ahronoth. "We'll pay the international price later for the collateral damage and the anticipated civilian casualties," Fishman said.

While Israeli said its airstrikes have targeted only Hamas installations and leaders, some of the bombs were so powerful that they destroyed or damaged adjacent houses.

Karam said she always felt under threat. She said her family didn't sleep. "We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow, or not," she said.

Anas Mansour, 21, a resident of the Rafah refugee camp on the Gaza-Egypt border, said he and his family may try to leave the area later Sunday. Mansour said he was sleeping in his clothes, with his identification cards in his pocket in case he had to flee quickly.

He said he could see his neighbor loading a donkey cart with mattresses and blankets to leave, but hadn't yet decided if he'd do the same. "Where can we go? It's all the same," Mansour said.

Deprivation is nothing new in Gaza, but the Israeli-led blockade of the territory has grown increasingly tighter over the past two months, making cooking gas and many foods scare.

Adding to that, last week's bombings damaged the strip's sanitary and electrical infrastructure, leaving many residents without power and water, and most shops are now shuttered.

"When there was a siege, we kept taking about a catastrophe," said Hatem Shurrab, 24, of Gaza City. "But then the airstrikes started, and now we don't even know what word to use. There's no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in."

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