Photo: Karl Schembri/Oxfam

As Israeli bombs rained down on the Gaza Strip throughout the night, Maltese Gaza resident Karl Schembri could be forgiven for stifling a couple of yawns.

“There’s been relentless bombing of the entire Gaza Strip, north to south, at night and throughout the day,” said Mr Schembri, who is development NGO Oxfam’s media spokesman in the region.

The Israelis and Palestinians have been trading bombs for the past four days, in the worst eruption of violence in the region since 2008.

The scars from that year’s violence were still fresh, Mr Schembri said. “Many people still remember the tragedy of four years ago, when 1,400 people were killed in 22 days.”

He said that even before this latest conflict, many Palestinians had still been living amid the rubble created by 2008’s strikes, unable to source construction material due to ongoing Israeli blockades of Gaza.

“Gaza now risks being destroyed again – and we’re talking about buildings built using international aid, money from all over the world which would go down the drain if these buildings were to be bombed,” he told The Sunday Times.

Israel insists that bombing targets are exclusively military, and that the fault for civilian casualties lies with Hamas for hiding its soldiers among the general population.

“The terrorists are committing a double war crime: they fire at Israeli civilians, and they hide behind Palestinian civilians,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said.

Israeli Ambassador to Malta David Oren noted how Hamas rocket attacks had escalated over the past months, and said that Israel was “not interested in a deterioration of the situation” but was instead seeking to remove “ a strategic threat to Israeli citizens”.

Senior Palestinian military leader Ahmed Al-Jabari has already been killed by Israeli rockets, which have also reduced the offices of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to rubble.

Just nine weeks away from a general election, Mr Netanyanhu is banking on a successful blitz to sweep him to re-election.

But the realisation that Hamas rockets can hit targets in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – places usually insulated from frontline violence – has led to distinct unease among Israelis.

Limor Fleiderman moved to the suburbs or Tel Aviv after living in Malta for four years. As a mother of three young children, the situation had her worried.

“The situation is very, very confusing for them. People are being careful, staying alert and listening to the news. Things have changed a bit, but as long as you stay close to a shelter, you should be fine,” she said.

Things weren’t that straightforward on the other side of the fence, Mr Schembri said.

“While civilians on both sides are clearly the victims, the bigger tragedy for those in Gaza is that there is nowhere to seek refuge or flee. It’s full of civilian infrastructure – schools, hospitals, houses – all within firing range.”

Mrs Fleiderman spoke frankly. “We long for peace and don’t want people on either side to die. But we stand by our government’s decision to defend its citizens.”

Mr Schembri, meanwhile, hoped for international intervention.

“It is imperative that this conflict is stopped before it escalates any further. We cannot afford to sit back, wait and do nothing - as had happened four years ago.”