(25 Aug 2014) The Israeli government on Monday began offering assistance to communities along the border with the Gaza strip, in the first large-scale voluntary evacuation effort during the nearly eight weeks of fighting.
So far, thousands of Israelis have fled their homes reflecting a growing sense of fear and frustration over the war with Hamas and the Palestinian mortar fire raining down on their communities.
Officials estimate that 70 percent of the 40,000 inhabitants of the farming communities along the Gaza border have left, including hundreds on Monday.
In one such community, Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, the streets are empty and most homes are eerily silent.
Children's swings sway in the wind on the empty playground and homes bare the marks of shrapnel from Palestinian mortars.
Elena Glass was among the few residents who decided to stay.
"We're not going to move because we don't give up. This is our house and we have to defend this place," she said.
Israel's military says Gaza militants have fired at least 1,400 mortar shells since the fighting began.
It is not the first time residents have left their homes during the fighting.
Several weeks ago, Palestinian militants tunnelled into territory near their communities from Gaza, terrifying residents and sparking an exodus.
"I don't know if I am afraid; this is my house, all my family are here but sometimes I am really, really, really afraid," Glass said.
For others, there was no alternative.
"There's no security," said Ein Hashlosha community leader, Yael Stadin.
"For more than 14 years we've said 'we are not going, this is our home'; now we find ourselves taking our suitcases and leaving the place that is home," she said.
The fighting has killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, according to Gaza officials, levelled thousands of buildings and left tens of thousands of people homeless.
The death toll on the Israeli side has been much lower, largely because of Israel's network of air raid sirens, bomb shelters and the Iron Dome missile-defence system.
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