AGENCIES

Fighting between Israel and Hamas intensified across Gaza yesterday, and Palestinians and international relief agencies said public order was disintegrating as hunger spread, fuelling fears of a mass exodus to Egypt.

The narrow coastal strip has been under a full Israeli blockade since the start of the conflict more than two months ago and the border with Egypt is the only other way out.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been driven from their homes and residents say it is impossible to find refuge, or increasingly food, in the densely populated enclave, with at least 18,205 people already killed and 49,645 injured.

Gazans said people forced to flee repeatedly were dying of hunger and cold as well as bombardment, describing desperate attacks on aid trucks and sky high prices.

“Had any of us expected that our people may die of hunger, had it crossed anyone’s mind before?” said Rola Ghanim, among many expressing bewilderment on social media.

Aid trucks risked being stopped by desperate residents if they even slowed down at an intersection, Carl Skau, said deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme.

“Half of the population are starving, nine out of 10 are not eating every day,” he told Reuters on Saturday.

One Palestinian told Reuters he had not eaten for three days and had to beg for bread for his children.

Yesterday, Hamas fighters and some residents said fighters were preventing Israeli tanks moving further west through the city and there were also fierce clashes in parts of northern Gaza, where Israel had said its tasks were largely complete.

Israelis fled to shelters after new warnings of rocket fire into from Gaza, including in Tel Aviv. The armed wing of Hamas said it was bombarding the city in response to “the Zionist massacres against civilians”.

In the northern Gazan city of Jabalia, Palestinians ran to escape smoke bombs fired near tents and other homes and Hamas said they were clashing with Israeli troops.

Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner

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