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2.2 ’No safe place’According to many of those interviewed by the FFM teams, generalised warningsissued by the Israeli military to large parts of the Gaza Strip via leaflets and SMS texts 34resulted in panic and mass displacement, and did not provide effective protection formany civilians. There was a sense of ‘no safe place’ since many of those killed diedeither in their own homes 35 or while fleeing them.This sense of ‘no safe place’ is borne out by the patient interviews. Of the 68 patients interviewed:• 33 were injured in or around their own homes (2 were at home, 3 were in theirback yard and 6 were at the doorway to or just outside their homes);• 10 were in or just outside the home of a relative or neighbour with whom theywere staying for greater safety;• Two were injured while in an UNRWA shelter; 36• 5 were injured while evacuating other injured people (4 of these were ambulanceparamedics and one was injured in his tok-tok on his way home from evacuatinginjured people 37 )• One was a hospital nurse injured on duty when her hospital came under attack; 38• 14 were injured out of doors (of these, most were moving from one place toanother for greater safety or to get supplies, one was outside a mosque, 39 onewas working his field, 40 and one, a 7-year-old, 41 was in a playground);• Two patients 42 were injured on a motorbike while one of them was transportingweapons and• One 43 patient, a 4-year-old, was injured after the ceasefire while playing in therubble of destroyed homes in his neighbourhood; 44According to a coordinator of emergency services at the Palestine Red CrescentSociety (PRCS), 45 the Israeli military used Salah al Din Road, the main highway runningthe entire length of the Gaza Strip from north to south, to divide the Gaza Strip intoeast and west segments. Everyone within 3 km of Gaza’s eastern border with Israelwas advised to evacuate (via leaflets dropped from the sky). PRCS estimates thatabout 500,000 people were internally displaced, especially alongside the north andeast borders, but also from the west, where shelling from Israeli gun-boats took34For the wording and location of the warnings see the IDF website http://www.idfblog.com/blog/2014/07/17/idf-dropswarning-leaflets-gaza/accessed 18 Nov 201435See Amnesty International, Families under the Rubble, 5 Nov 2014, http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/032/2014/en/613926df-68c4-47bb-b587-00975f014e4b/mde150322014en.pdf , accessed 23 Nov 201436Both of these incidents were in northern Gaza. See interview sortcodes J10 (Beit Hanoun) and EJM10 (Jabalia).37For details on injured medics see Chapter 3 ‘Attacks on medical personnel and medical facilities’ below, and interviewsortcodes MED1, MED2, MED3 and MED4. On the tok-tok driver see interview sortcode EJJ938Interview sortcode MED5 / J9.39Interview sortcode EJJ840It is unclear if this patient’s condition was caused by pesticide exposure or by a conflict-related source.41Interview sortcode EJJ2442Interview sortcodes J2, J1143Interview sortcode EJM944See 6.2 ‘Hazardous sites’ below.45Interview held on 19 Aug 2014 by the first FFM team. Name redacted and retained by PHR-Israel at request of theinterviewee.38