Hundreds of terrified Palestinians living in Rafah fled for their lives on Tuesday after a wave of ferocious Israeli airstrikes along Gaza's border with Egypt, witnesses said.
Black smoke curled into the sky as Israeli warplanes carried out dozens of bombing raids over the border area, destroying at least four houses, they said.
Witnesses said hundreds of people had been forced to flee after Israel dropped leaflets warning it was about to bombard targets along the border.
"There have been more than 60 airstrikes along the border and my house has been partly destroyed," said Mohammed Ismael, 28, who has taken his family to stay with relatives in another party of the city.
Ali Abdelsataf al-Hams, 22, said he and his family had abandoned their home several days ago to stay with relatives in another part of Gaza.
"I came back and found our house destroyed," he said.
Jawad Harb, a Palestinian working for the international aid agency CARE, said the bombardments had forced between 350 to 400 people out onto the streets.
"There are continuous airstrikes along the Egyptian border - about 60 families have all fled their houses which are situated several hundred metres from the border," he said as a series of deafening blasts echoed in the background.
"We live about 500 metres from the border which means we are in the frontline," Harb said.
Many families only had time to grab a few blankets and some food before the bombardment started, sending thick clouds of black smoke swirling into the sky.
As darkness fell and the temperature dropped, whole families were huddled together on a piece of sandy ground just some 200 metres from their homes with no shelter and very little food or water to share between them.
With all the UN schools in Rafah already packed with homeless people, there was nowhere for them to hide, Harb said.
"The UNRWA schools are completely full with about 50 people living in each classroom," he said, referring to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Children wailed in panic as shell-shocked parents stood nearby, trying to absorb the latest blow in Israel's bloody campaign in the Gaza Strip, which so far has claimed more than 930 Palestinian lives.
"We have to camp outside all night. It is really cold now but it will get even colder and we have no heating," he said. "I cannot describe how I feel. None of us know what to do."
Israel has long vowed to smash the intricate network of smuggling tunnels running under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The tunnels that criss-cross the border are used to smuggle goods and weapons into the territory that has been virtually cut off from the outside world since Hamas seized power in June 2007.
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