Solution, Anyone?

"Days ago we warned civilians in Shejaiya to evacuate."
"Hamas ordered them to stay. Hamas put them in the line of fire."
Spokesman, Israel Defence Force

Palestinians flee their homes in Gaza's eastern Shejaiya district on Sunday after heavy Israeli shelling. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images

"You kidnap me, you give me back and then I'll kidnap you -- that's how it goes."
Esther, mother of four, Kibbutz Alumim

Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip is continuing on from the eastern suburb of Shejaiya where at least one hundred people were killed after warning was given to the area's 80,000 inhabits to leave. Heavy artillery, mortars and airstrikes were levied on the enclave, destroying buildings, houses, forcing thousands to flee their homes, steaming across Gaza City in search of refuge at United Nations schools and the main hospital.

In Kibbutz Alumim three kilometres from Israel's border with Gaza, a mother bemoans and deplores the new game the children are playing, of abduction. By 4:00 p.m. on Sunday ten rocket alarms had sounded, sending residents to bomb shelters. The day before, Hamas terrorists from Gaza had emerged through tunnels in residential communities a few kilometres away from this kibbutz.

A picture released by the Israeli Defense shows Israeli tunnels discovered by soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade in the Northern Gaza Strip on July 18, 2014. (photo credit: IDF Spokesperson/Flash90)

The Israeli military had evidence in the form of equipment that was carried by the Hamas group; syringes, tranquillizers, plastic handcuffs and Israeli uniforms indicating their purpose was to kidnap, not only kill Israelis unfortunate enough to fall into their hands, as bargaining chips. "The main thing is that we can't really leave our houses", Esther explained, fear of terrorists from Gaza infiltrating the area an obvious deterrent to complacency.

The Palestinian death toll has surmounted 500 since the July 8 start of the offensive. A military statement described Shejaiya as a "fortress for Hamas terrorists", the Islamist Hamas hiding behind civilians. Shejaiya is located just over a kilometre distance from the eastern border of Gaza. As such it is ideally located for the purpose of firing routine rockets at Israeli cities. In response, the area was seen as a key target for the ground invasion.

Do nothing in response to the rain of rockets over the border into Israel and suffer the consequences of terror barrages and stealth incursions on murder missions from Gaza into Israel. Respond and the trap set by Hamas to entice the Israeli military to fight in crowded civilian enclaves -- where the guerrilla group is familiar with the layout and more than willing to countenance and even encourage the deaths of civilians to further their agenda -- succeeds and in the process horrifies a critical world.

The emergency outflow of desperate Palestinians frightened and anxious to escape death has overwhelmed all the possible areas where people can find haven in the Strip. The United Nations went immediately from playing host to 30,000 internally displaced refugees at its schools and health centres to absorbing a total of 81,000 people dependent on them for their safety.

"We raise our children to be strong, with a strong desire for peace. But the tunnels are frightening. We don't know where these tunnels will come out", says Eitan Lakoum, picking his children up from the village's children's centre at the Kibbutz. Every few minutes explosions are heard and they continue well into the night, some powerful enough to rattle windows.

Nearby, in Sderot a resident of Kibbutz Aza, on the Gaza border as well, speaks of her traumatized three-year-old. She decided, along with her husband to leave the kibbutz, worried about the potential of tunnel infiltration. "My father always told me to move away from Kibbutz Aza. He would say, 'Listen, I've served in the Russian army; I know what they are doing. They are digging tunnels there, they're going to come to your house'.

"And now, it's really happening. Now they've dug a tunnel to Netiva Esara (a nearby kibbutz) Now he's right", she said. Older children in Sderot have a lot to think about. They try to imagine what life is like on the other side, across the border in Gaza. "I hear the noise here, and I think about what they must be hearing there", Eden, 13, remarks.

"They don't have any protection, any safe rooms. And the terrorists there use the children as human shields." He is asked, does he think peace will ever finally prevail? "No", he says. The constant rocket bombardment is all he has ever experienced.