Gaza voices: Friday

Israel has struck more than 30 targets in Gaza in 24 hours

Sonic booms from Israeli military aircraft are shattering sleep and nerves in Gaza.

With the Israeli military still massed at the northern border, the BBC News website spoke to two Palestinians in Gaza about how they are coping with the tension.

SOLAFA ODAH, TRANSLATOR, BEIT LAHIA

I live 3km from the northern Israeli border. I can't see the Israeli forces, but I can hear them shelling and firing. They are targeting the buffer zone.

Yesterday evening, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades came and launched some Qassam rockets towards Israel from near here. So we are expecting Israeli retaliation.

We can easily distinguish the sound of Qassam rockets from the Israeli shelling. The Qassam sound is weak, but the Israeli shelling is very strong. We feel it as well as hear it.

I still go outside, I do what I want.

Yesterday I went to work in Gaza City as normal. My director asked me why I was there. Everyone expects the Israelis to enter the north and he worries about me getting back to Beit Lahia.

He wanted to send me home in a taxi but I refused to go.

I don't think the Israelis will move into the north, because it's so overpopulated. If they come they will hurt too many people which will not be good for them.

I am not afraid for myself, but I worry about other people. Children are always asking "If the Israelis come, will we be killed?" I say I hope they won't come.

REEM EL-ZAEEM, STUDENT, GAZA CITY

If you had rung a few seconds ago you would have heard the sonic boom. It happens suddenly to surprise us, sometimes at two in the morning, or in the middle of the afternoon.

The electricity has just come on. We will have it for two hours.

I feel like a prisoner. Gaza is a small city but a big prison. It's boring.

Israel is putting pressure on Hamas to release the soldier

I have just finished my final year exams and I can't even go outside. Normally when people finish their exams they are happy, but I'm not.

The main pleasure for people here in summer is the beach. But after what happened to Huda [the Palestinian girl who lost her family in an explosion on a Gaza beach in June] we don't want to do that.

Sometimes I feel I would like to be anywhere but Gaza. I am in my 20s - I want to enjoy my life, to achieve something, to do something important. Even though I love my country I don't feel the future is with me here.

Psychologically, it is more than disappointment. I feel depressed.