Palestinians living along the border with Israel received messages on their phones from the Israeli army asking them to leave their homes. “We have nowhere to go,” Ahmed Abu Amra, a Palestinian with three children who lives near the border, told Al Jazeera.

“Our house is under threat of bombing, as is the entire border zone. The worst thing is that I ended up on the street with my children and other neighbors, not knowing where to go. The territory near the border is like a war zone. There is no transport to take us anywhere,” the man told Al Jazeera.

Those who have been forced to flee their homes are hiding in schools, hoping Israel will not bomb the buildings, said Khaled, Ahmed’s brother.

The Israeli army announced at noon on Sunday that it was evacuating civilians from towns near the border with Gaza, including Nahal Oz, Erez, Nir Am, Mefalsim, Kfar Aza, Gevim, Or Haner, Ibim, Netiv Haasara, Yad Mordechai, Karmiya , Zikim, Kerem Shalom, Kissufim, Holit, Sufa, Nirim, Nir Oz, Ein Hashlosh, Nir Yitzhak, Beeri, Magen, Reim, Saad and Alumim.

“Our mission for the next 24 hours is to evacuate all residents living around Gaza,” said Israeli forces spokesman Daniel Hagari.

According to him, the evacuation can be carried out only after “proper scanning of the territory” to make sure there are no terrorists.

“Tens of thousands of soldiers are fighting in this area. We will reach every community until we kill every terrorist in Israel,” Hagari said.

He said the population of Gaza would be warned before attacks on Hamas targets “to avoid collateral damage” but “there will be no evacuation from the Palestinian territory”: “We will tell them to go north, go south, go east.”

Israel’s security cabinet is declaring a state of war following attacks by the Palestinian extremist group Hamas, authorizing “far-reaching military steps,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Sunday.

Hamas’s attack on Israel continued on Sunday, with the Islamist group saying it still has fighters in seven Israeli cities that it is supporting with rocket fire. Hezbollah also intervened in the conflict, attacking positions in the disputed Shebaa farms with artillery and rockets on Sunday morning, and Israeli forces responded with artillery fire and drone strikes on some of the group’s positions in Lebanon.

The Israeli army also continues to strike Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip and is struggling to eliminate Islamist militants from its territory. At the moment, there are hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded in each camp, as well as many prisoners.

• Sunday’s developments regarding Hamas’ sudden war against Israel – LIVETEXT here on HotNews.ro