Under heavy bombing, Palestinians in Gaza move from place to place, only to discover nowhere is safe

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Over 180,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are packed into United Nations shelters as Israeli warplanes pound the tiny territory of 2.3 million people after their Hamas militant rulers launched an unprecedented weekend attack on Israel.

Among them is 27-year-old Sabreen al-Attar. She sprang into action when she heard rocket after rocket whoosh over her farmland in Beit Lahiya just north of the Israeli border on Saturday. She knew from experience that Israeli retaliation would be swift and severe.

Grabbing her children, al-Attar rushed to one of the dozens of shelters set up in schools run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza City. There, blasts of unprecedented intensity punctuated hours of steadily declining conditions Monday as food and water ran out.

“When I escape, I do it for my children,” she said, her hands trembling. “Their lives rest on my shoulders.”