GAZA CITY: Israel’s massive offensive has sent Gaza residents scurrying for shelter from the bombs, but in the words of a father of four “anywhere you go in Gaza you’re in danger of dying.”

Wahbeh Abu Jahl, his wife and their four children have been staying with different relatives in Gaza since their apartment was destroyed in an Israeli raid.

“At first I couldn’t even find a tent to put up on the rubble of our house for my family,” said Abu Jahl, who finally managed to rent another apartment for his family although they cannot move in because it has no furniture. “Besides, anywhere you go in Gaza, you’re in danger of dying.”

Maher Abu Kmeil, 50, moved to a “safer place” after a house next door was hit in an airstrike. “But that doesn’t mean we’re safe now, since the Israelis are attacking everything, even the mosques and the hospitals.”

Maher Al-Khodari lived in a five-story building next to a mosque. But after Israeli attacks demolished several mosques over the past several days, saying they were used as Hamas weapons storage sites, he preferred not to take the risk. “We left our home four days ago. I am scared for my family since we live next to a mosque that can be attacked at any moment,” he said.

“The situation is very difficult. Some 30 of us, residents of the same building, slept in a corridor of the house to be safe in case of an attack,” he added.

The Israeli military has hit more than 450 targets, mostly by air but also from the sea, since it began its massive bombing campaign on Saturday. “I live in a six-story building, where all the residents have left,” said 48-year-old Adnan Al-Kharubi, a father of six. “My family and I moved in with my parents but I still worry since the raids can strike any corner of the street.”

Fawaz Abu Sitah, who lives next to a Hamas government complex that has been largely reduced to rubble by Israeli strikes, has also moved in with relatives. “My house and dozens of others in the neighborhood were hit,” he said, expressing his “bitterness over the silence of the civilized world in the face of Israeli practices.”

Many people have been forced to leave their houses because “they can’t bear the cold after the shattering of their windows,” said Hamdi Shaqura, of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights in Gaza.

Other families have left their windows open, shivering in the chilly winter temperatures, to try and prevent their children from being hit by shards of glass that fly around after a missile attack.