GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israel's massive offensive on Gaza has sent its residents scattering trying to find shelter from the bombs but in the words of a father of four "anywhere you go in Gaza you're in danger of dying." Wahbeh Abu Jahl, his wife and their four children have been staying with different relatives in Gaza since their apartment was destroyed by an Israeli raid. "At first I couldn't even find a tent to put for my family up on the rubble of our house," said Abu Jahl, who finally managed to rent another apartment for his family although they cannot move in because it has no furniture. "Besides, anywhere you go in Gaza, you're in danger of dying." Israel launched the New Year with fresh air strikes on Gaza that took the death toll from its blitz on Hamas to 414 as international efforts to secure a truce foundered. On the sixth day of Israel's biggest military operation against the Palestinian territory in decades, Hamas also fired rockets into Israel, which said it carried out about 20 overnight air raids on the battered enclave. Israeli jets pounded Hamas government buildings, rocket launching sites and tunnels suspected of being used to smuggle weapons and supplies into the territory, the military said. The death toll from "Operation Cast Lead" reached 414 with nearly 2,000 people wounded, the head of Gaza emergency services Moawiya Hassanein told AFP. The UN says at least 25 percent of those killed have been civilians. Maher Abu Kmeil, 50, moved to a "safer place" after a house next door was hit in a raid. "But that doesn't mean we're safe now, since the Israelis are attacking everything, even the mosques and the hospitals." Maher al-Khodari lived in a five-storey building next to a mosque. But after Israeli raids demolished several mosques over the past several days, saying they were used as Hamas weapons storage sites, he preferred not to take the risk. "We left our home four days ago. I am scared for my family since we live next to a mosque that can be attacked at any moment," he said. "The situation is very difficult. Some 30 of us, residents of the same building, slept in a corridor of the house to be safe in case of an attack," he added. The Israeli military has struck more than 450 targets, mostly by air but also from the sea, since it began its massive bombing campaign on Saturday. "I live in a six-storey building, where all the residents have left," said 48-year-old Adnan al-Kharubi, a father of six. "My family and I moved in with my parents but I still worry since the raids can strike any corner of the street." Fawaz Abu Sitah, who lives next to a Hamas government complex that has been largely reduced to rubble by Israeli strikes, has also moved in with relatives. Many people have been forced to leave their houses because "they can't support the cold after the shattering of their windows," said Hamdi Shaqura, of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza (PCHR). The PCHR estimates that thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes. "Thousands of Palestinians, especially those who live near the Egyptian-Palestinian border, have been forced to flee after the Israeli raids in the area" targeting contraband tunnels, it said in a statement. Other families leave their homes to pass the night in schools run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, hoping the Israeli warplanes will not target those structures. "For several nights, people come for shelter in UNRWA schools," said spokesman Christopher Gunness. Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon called Wednesday for a "sustainable and durable" ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Cannon spoke to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and several of his counterparts, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Tzipi Livni of Israel, Palestinian diplomatic chief Riyad al-Maliki, France's Bernard Kouchner and Egypt's Ahmed Abul Gheit. "Minister Cannon repeated Canada's call to all parties to reach a sustainable and durable ceasefire. Meanwhile, Pope Benedict XVI on Thursday said he hoped "violence, hatred and mistrust" would not prevail in the world in 2009, notably in the Middle East, and condemned an "unacceptable" arms race. "Violence, hatred and mistrust are themselves forms of poverty " perhaps the greatest " that must be fought," the pope said during a mass marking the Roman Catholic Church's traditional January 1 World Day of Peace, on the theme of fighting poverty and building peace.