[Ramallah, November 9. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian child is reflected on the glass of a bus as it drives past a section of Israel's controversial separation barrier in al-Ram between the West Bank city of Ramallah and Jerusalem on November 9, 2009. Palestinians are using the 20th anniversary of the toppling of the Berlin Wall to press their campaign against Israel's 'wall' on territory they want for a state. Israel launched the barrier, which is mostly razor-wire fence interspersed with concrete barricades, in 2002 during a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings. While such attacks have dramatically dropped since, Israel has come under international censure for the barrier's de facto annexation of occupied West Bank land. AFP PHOTO/DANIEL BAR-ON (Photo credit should read Daniel Bar-On/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, November 3. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl plays with pigeons in front of her family�s destroyed house in the war ravaged Ezz Abed Rabbo district of the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on November 3, 2009. The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas has successfully test-fired a rocket capable of reaching Tel Aviv from the Gaza Strip, a senior Israeli general warned. AFP PHOTO / MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Rafah, October 14. Image via Getty]

The widow and children of Palestinian Yusef Abu Zuhri mourn during his funeral in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on October 14, 2009. Hamas charged that Abu Zuhri, the brother of one of the Palestinian Islamist group's chief spokesmen, was tortured to death in an Egyptian prison, a claim denied by Cairo. Abu Zuhri was arrested in April in the Sinai town of el-Arish following what Egyptian security officials said was a tip-off from members of the rival Fatah party who had fled Gaza when Hamas seized power there in June 2007. AFP PHOTO/SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, September 20. Image via Getty]

A displaced Palestinian woman takes cover from the pouring rain inside her tent at the Atatra refugee camp in the nothern Gaza Strip Beit Lahia district on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday on September 20, 2009. Rain storms hit the impoverished war-battered Palestinian territory as Muslims celebrated the end of the holy month of Ramadan. AFP PHOTO / YASSER SAYMEH (Photo credit should read YASSER SAYMEH/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, September 15. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian woman sits near a graffiti reading �Hamas� in Arabic as she waits to travel to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on September 15, 2009. US envoy George Mitchell sought a deal on the thorny issue of West Bank settlements as he met Israel's prime minister aiming to pave the way to resume stalled Middle East peace talks. AFP PHOTO/ SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, August 3. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl waits with her mother to board a bus bound for Egypt at the Rafah border terminal in the southern Gaza Strip on August 3, 2009. The Egyptian government opened its Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip — the only one that bypasses Israel — for three days. The coastal strip has been under Israeli blockade since the Islamist Hamas movement seized control in June 2007. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Jabalia Refugee Camp, Gaza Strip; July 30. Image via Getty]

Palestinian grooms arrive with young bridesmaids during a mass wedding in the Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip on July 30, 2009. Over 400 couples got married during the event which was sponsored by Hamas. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza City, July 30. Image via Getty]

Palestinian children fly kites along the beach during a UN-sponsored summer camp in Gaza City on July 30, 2009. Thousands of children in the Gaza Strip sought to break the world record for kite flying in a rare moment of respite from the war-battered enclave's daily life. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Jabalia, Gaza Strip; July 21. Image via Getty]

Palestinian children play at the doorstep of their home in the northern Gaza Strip refugee camp of Jabalia on July 21, 2009. The United Nation says more than half of residents in the Gaza Strip are living under the poverty line. Living conditions in Gaza have deteriorated because of the three-year long Israeli blockade imposed by Israel against the territory�s Hamas rulers. AFP PHOTO/MOHAMMED ABED (Photo credit should read MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, June 21. Image via Getty]

Palestinian girls with their faces painted in the colours of their national flag attend a summer camp in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on June 21, 2009. The camp was organised by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). AFP PHOTO/SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

[Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip; May 28. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl waves her national flag during a summer camp activity on the beach in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on May 28, 2009. Israel's recent war on Gaza brought the enclave to the brink of a catastrophe, Amnesty International said on May 28, also lambasting the two main Palestinian factions for human rights violations. AFP PHOTO/SAID KHATIB (Photo credit should read SAID KHATIB/AFP/Getty Images)

[Gaza Strip, May 27. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl whose home was destroyed during the massive 22-day onslaught unleashed by Israel on the Islamist Hamas-run Gaza in December, is pictured inside the tent housing her family in the northern Gaza Strip Jabalia refugee camp on 27 May, 2009. With construction at a standstill, the newly homeless residents of the Gaza Strip where the vast majority of the 1.5 million population depends on foreign aid have had to make do. The fortunate have found temporary housing, some stay with relatives in what is already one of the most densely populated places on earth, while people with nowhere else to go are living in tents. AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD HAMS (Photo credit should read MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images)

[Sderot, Israel; May 19. Image via Getty]

An Israeli woman reacts after a rocket, fired by militants in the Gaza Strip, landed in a house in the southern city of Sderot on May 19, 2009. The rocket slammed into the yard of a house in Sderot without causing casualties, the military said. The southern Israeli city is a few kilometres (miles) from the Gaza border. AFP PHOTO/DAVID BUIMOVITCH (Photo credit should read DAVID BUIMOVITCH/AFP/Getty Images)

She and her family fled the building, only to be turned away from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters. They finally found out that the explosion they heard came from an off-target rocket, and even though a small boy was injured, they felt relieved. Joudeh writes:

We are now unable to distinguish joy from fear. My 11-year old sister laughs as she imagines how people all over the world watch the horrific events taking place in the Gaza Strip. "Its like we are a scary movie. I'm sure people eat popcorn as they watch," she says. My 12- and 14-year old brothers act out scenes from our reality while quoting Metal Gear Solid 4 and Guns of Patriots, their favorite video game, and we laugh hysterically at their performance. Moments later we tense up at the sound of a violent, close by earthquake-like explosion, and resume our laughter when the building stops shaking.

First Person: Living in Gaza, Under Starlight and Bomb Blasts [Time]

Israel claims it had "no choice" but to attack, after a truce with Hamas had expired. "There is a time for calm and a time for fighting, and now the time has come to fight," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak says, "It won't be easy and it won't be short." Hamas has vowed revenge for the attacks, releasing this statement: "Hamas will continue the resistance until the last drop of blood." Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian legislator, calls the attacks, "a very cruel escalation, a relentless bombardment of a captive civilian population that has already been under siege for months, that has been deprived of basic requirements like food and medicines and fuel and power," while Israeli Maj. Avital Leibovich claims the attacks are necessary "in order to preserve the security situation in Israel." The United States, meanwhile, has released a statement asking that Israel "avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza." [BBC][CNN]