The evacuation of the southern Israeli city of Sderot is another indication that a ground offensive into Gaza is imminent.
I’m the ABC’s global affairs editor and I’m in Ashdod, in southern Israel, covering the war.
Sderot is the closest Israeli city to the border with Gaza. Over many years, it has frequently been the target of rockets from Gaza and has built an infrastructure of bomb shelters as a result.
The fact that the Israeli army has ordered its evacuation is a strong indication that they believe there will be a significant increase in threat level.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday visited soldiers near the border with Gaza.
He told them that the next phase of the war with Hamas would begin soon.
In Gaza, hundreds of thousands of citizens from Gaza City are scrambling to move to the south to try to avoid the expected ground war.
The Israeli army has dropped more than 6,000 bombs on Gaza over the last week, sometimes demolishing entire neighbourhoods.
The UN says at least 700 children have been killed.
In one incident, an Israeli bomb hit a truck that was part of the attempt to get to the south.
Gaza’s Ministry of Health said at least 40 people were killed and 150 injured — many of them women and children.
