IT was only one short sentence but it spoke a thousand words about the terror being felt by so many people.

“If in the morning we are alive, feel free to call me,” Basel Sourani wrote, having said there had been two close air strikes.

The Palestinian’s message came after he told of being holed up in darkness in Gaza as rockets exploded nearby.

He said he was no more than 400 metres from the missiles and that the building he was in was shaking.

The human rights group worker last night gave his account of the ordeal amid Israel’s bombardment after the Hamas attacks.

Basel, 30, who is in the southern city of Khan Yunis, also revealed he has seen desperate people fighting over bread.

He said: “We hear very close bombing, around seven or eight rockets. Between each rocket there is a minute or so.”

Basel, who is international advocacy officer for the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, added: “I’m at [our] office... it’s very terrifying when you hear the sound of the rocket coming down and it’s very close because... the building, while the rocket is falling, you feel it shaking.

“I think they are maximum 400 metres away. I’ve seen them while they were falling... This is a war not launched against Hamas but against the Palestinian people. T h e targets are not military ones, they are mainly civilian ones.

“Civilians are now in the eye of the storm.” With supplies scarce, he added: “I could see from the window [in the morning], there is a bakery shop in front of me and there are people who are fighting.”

Basel, who said he was with three others, added they had two bottles of water, bread and olive oil. He said: “We don’t have any light, we have solar energy from the office below. We’re sitting in complete darkness...

“It’s completely unsafe.” Asked if he has a plan, he replied: “None of us have any plans. Unfortunately, there is no place safe.”

He added: “We don’t know what’s going to happen next, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. We don’t know whether we’ll wake up. We don’t even sleep.”