1000s flee for cover as Israel resumes air strikes

Gaza City - Thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in neighbourhoods of eastern Gaza City on Tuesday, carrying bags of clothes, pillows and mattresses after renewed Israeli air strikes, witnesses said.

An AFP reporter saw hundreds of Palestinians streaming out of Shejaiya, one of the areas worst affected by more than a month of fighting between Israel and Hamas.

Thousands more were leaving the areas of Zeitun and Shaaf, alarmed by a series of explosions, and heading towards shelters in UN schools, the witnesses said.

More than 2 000 people - most of them Palestinian civilians - have died in the Gaza conflict which broke out on 8 July.