Assault panicking Gazans, U.N. agency says

GAZA, Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A U.N. observer says Israel's aerial assault is creating panic in Gaza, and that the city's residents are fighting among themselves as a result.

"It's very bad -- people are running in all directions because of the bombings that are happening everywhere," Karen AbuZayd, a humanitarian spokeswoman for the United Nations, told CNN from Gaza. "People are very agitated because the bombings are now concentrating on individual houses and individual families, apparently."

Israeli planes began their airstrikes during the weekend, saying the action was self-defense against Hamas militants who have been firing rockets and mortar rounds into Israel.

Militants in Gaza, meanwhile, fired more than 40 missiles into southern Israel Monday, killing one person, Israeli police said.

Israel also has positioned military tanks along the Gaza-Israel border, raising concerns among Gazans about a threat of a ground campaign, said AbuZayd, who is commissioner-general of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, which provides assistance to about 80 percent of Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Unless fighting ends soon, Gaza is headed for "a major humanitarian disaster," Eyad El-Sarraj, a psychiatrist who runs Gaza's mental health program, told CNN.

"The children are terrified," he said Sunday. "Adults are unable to provide them with security or warmth. Hospitals are stretched out of the limits. We need blood and medicine and surgical equipment."

Echoing the psychiatrist's assessment was Dr. Mahmoud el-Khazndar, who works at Gaza's Shifa Hospital.

"People are suffering and dying because of shortages of medical equipment," Khazndar said. "The hospital is not accustomed to accept mass casualties like this."