GAZA: Gaza’s Palestinians hunkered down in fear for their lives while Hamas fighters urged defiance after Israel sent forces into the densely populated territory on Thursday after 10 days of cross-border fire.

Residents largely abandoned the usually teeming streets after a fevered night of bombardment. Ships spitting machine gun fire drifted closer to the desert enclave’s Mediterranean shore, artillery shells lit the skyline orange every few seconds and buildings shook from the air attacks.

Small groups of drowsy men trudged to Friday prayers in Gaza City despite the frequent boom of Israeli artillery.

“We’re terrified. My whole family hears the bombs fall around us and we could be hit any time. We feel like there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves,” said Yousef Al-Hayek, 60, wearing a white robe and clasping prayer beads.

“Everything’s in God’s hands. The invasion was expected, but how it will end is not yet clear. We hope for a truce.” Among the 23 Palestinians killed in the night darkness after Israeli announced ground operations to destroy underground tunnels were three young cousins — Mohammed, Mohammed and Ali Nutaiz, aged between 4 and 26.

They fled with their families from Israeli tank fire in an eastern border town, only to be killed when the house to which they fled was shelled, a relative told Reuters at their funeral. Palestinian medics say 222 of the 260 Gazans killed in the hostilities have been civilians, including 40 children.

Hamas said it welcomed Israel’s ground thrust and looked forward to killing and capturing soldiers after many of its some 1,400 rockets — according to the Israeli military — so far were deflected by missile defenses. Just one Israeli civilian has been killed, as well as one soldier in the incursion.

“Are you promising us what we are waiting for? Gaza is waiting for you to suffer bitter death,” Abu Ubeida, the masked and camouflaged spokesman of Hamas’s armed wing, the Al-Qassam brigades, boasted last week. “The world will see the skulls of your soldiers stepped on by the bare feet of our children. We will turn it into the promised hope of freedom dawning soon for our prisoners,” he said.