Ordinary Gazans are becoming used to coping with conflict including curfews, street clashes and most recently, severe shortages all created by an 18-month border blockade by Israel and Egypt.

The body of a Palestinian child lay on a stretcher at Shifa hospital in the east of Gaza City after an Israeli strike on Jan. 5, 2009. [Xinhua]

But Israel's unprecedented operation against Hamas militants has strained their survival skills. Meanwhile, children are among the most defenceless victims in the disaster.

Children are playing on the rubble of destroyed buildings as their parents struggle to salvage what's left of their possessions.

This boy still remembers what he experienced.

Gaza City Resident, said, "I was at my grandfather's house, I heard the shelling and ran away. When I came back, I saw all of it was gone, there is no longer a house."