As rockets are intercepted in the skies over Tel Aviv several times a day, a steady stream of refugees fills the city's hotels. They’ve fled, they tell us, even greater danger in the Israeli towns and villages near Gaza.
The death toll in Gaza rises and chaos reigns as the hours count down to the now inevitable Israeli invasion.
Israel intends to prosecute its latest war with the militant group Hamas to the bitter end, irrespective of international condemnation.
In southern Israel this week, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant gave an insight into his government's thinking: "Gaza won't return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything."
He was addressing Israeli soldiers who'd retaken Kibbutz Be-eri from Hamas, where dozens of residents were killed last weekend and others were taken hostage.
As Hamas fighters shot people in the streets and set fire to homes, a mothers’ WhatsApp group at the Kibbutz sent desperate messages to each other.
The BBC reported how one message read: "We have a terrorist on the stairs, Call someone." Help didn't come for hours.
The Israeli determination to not just avenge what happened, but to ensure it never happens again, is the driver for the fearsome government rhetoric.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last night in a television address that Hamas would be destroyed, no matter how long it takes.
He declared: "This is just the beginning... our enemies have only begun paying the price and I will not say more. This is just the beginning."
Yet the prime minister's capacity to prosecute such a long war is in doubt.
An opinion poll this week suggested that only 29% of Israelis believe he's still qualified to be prime minister given that more than 1,300 Israelis were killed, and 3,000 were injured, in the surprise attack by Hamas last weekend.
Mr Netanyahu was also criticised last night for making his brief television address at the beginning of the sabbath - an unusual occurrence.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid denounced Mr Netanyahu saying: "How can Israel's prime minister send an entire nation into a frenzy... only to then say nothing on the hostages, the north, the evacuations."
Read more:
Thousands on move in Gaza ahead of expected incursion
Live: Updates as they happen
Watch: The Israel–Palestine conflict - a brief history
What's not in doubt is that Israel is about to launch a ground offensive inside Gaza, which Defence Minister Gallant declared could last weeks, if not months.
The Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Israeli Defence Forces will be augmented by an astonishing 360,000 reservists.
The first step has been relentless air strikes across Gaza for the past week, which have cost more than 1,900 Palestinian lives and obliterated residential tower blocks.
Before Israeli troops and reservists cross into Gaza en masse, security experts predict that the air strikes will intensify even further.
The Israeli intent to defy international opinion has been exemplified by its extraordinary demand that more than one million Palestinians leave their homes in northern Gaza within 24 hours.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said moving one million people across a war zone would be extremely hazardous, if not impossible.
The very idea of forcing a million people from their homes, and closing hospitals, was denounced by the World Health Organization.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said it was contrary to international humanitarian law.
The condemnation, however, hasn't resulted in Israel deviating from its path.
Similar condemnation for imposing a blockade this week on energy, food, water, and medical supplies entering Gaza was also ignored.
Israel may have briefly extended its deadline for civilians to evacuate northern Gaza but the central aim remains the same - to destroy Hamas.
The Israeli Defence Forces claimed today that Gaza City is the location of most of the Hamas commanders and that's why it must be taken.
The corollary is that civilians must move south of the Gaza river to be "safer" because the IDF is going to "enhance our significant military operations" in that zone.
A spokesman said the IDF were "advertising our intensions in advance" because they want "civilians not to be affected by the war... they are not our enemy."
With more than two million people living in an area measuring just 365sq.km, many more civilians will almost certainly be killed.
Health authorities in Gaza say that more than 1,900 Palestinians have already been killed over the past week in Israeli airstrikes.
This death toll will undoubtedly spiral when the land invasion rolls into Gaza in the coming hours.
