Sights and sounds of Israel's Gaza offensive

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli offensive against Islamist Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip has had a big impact on the lives of civilians on both sides of the enclave's border and has raised tensions in the West Bank.

Here are some sights and sounds of the conflict.

"If you have rockets, if you have ammunition in your house, leave it," Israeli forces tell Palestinians in Gaza in telephone messages.

"Leave your house, it will be bombed soon," some are told.

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Most of Gaza's 1.5 million people are not only confined to their homes but are sticking to the room, or sofa corner, furthest from windows and flying glass.

"We sleep in the kitchen and either me or my husband goes with any child who wants to use the bathroom," says Umm Hussam, a mother of seven. "At no time do we leave the kids unattended, they tremble each time there is a bombing."

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In the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, a 20-minute drive up the coast in peacetime, the alert sounds when a Gaza rocket launch is detected, giving maybe a minute's warning to get to a shelter. Most Israeli homes have hardened bomb-proof rooms.

On Monday, this did not save a man working outside in a construction crew. "I'm standing next to the body," Ashkelon's mayor tells Israeli radio live from the scene. "I'm sorry to tell you we have one fatality."

"The Qassam Brigades rocketed occupied al-Majdal (Ashkelon) with a Grad rocket and the Zionist enemy admitted the death of a Zionist and the wounding of others," a Hamas statement says.

The victim turned out to be an Arab Israeli, not a Jew.

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Hundreds of people walk in the funeral of five sisters killed by a strike in Jabalya refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and mourners call on Islamic militants to "Bomb Tel Aviv."

But space is running out in the local cemetery so they are buried in three graves, one for the eldest and two each for the other two little sisters.

People are reopening old family plots to bury the dead, afraid of using a graveyard close to the Gaza-Israel border.