Streets across Gaza on Saturday were filled with families fleeing south, some crammed into cars, others on donkey carts, many walking with nothing but bags and blankets. Their destinations were the central and southern parts of the enclave. The reason for the tiring and uncertain journey was fear.
New Israeli warnings of expanded ground operations and attacks on residential buildings have sparked another exodus, reflecting the trauma of past forced displacements. Yet even as the convoys moved along the al-Rashid coastal road, some residents have chosen to remain in the city they call home.
“There is no option but to leave”
Abu Mohammed al-Dawoudi, 47, fled his home in Sheikh Radwan with his wife and seven children after days of shelling.
“We don’t feel safe anywhere anymore. Every hour another explosion, another tower collapses on the people inside,” he told Anadolu, adding:
“There is no choice but to flee or die. The Israeli army spares no one.”
Although he had no clear destination, al-Dawoudi gathered his family and headed south.
“Even if there is no shelter waiting, we have to try. Staying is no longer an option,” he said.
Nearby, Umm Rami, 38, was preparing to leave with her four children. Her husband loaded things onto a cart as they recalled the destruction of the Mushtah building on Friday.
“We are terrified that the rest of the towers will suffer the same fate,” she said, adding:
“We don’t know what awaits us in the south, but we know what it means to stay here.”
Fear and defiance
The exodus revealed a collective fear. Women held children, elderly men limped with canes, boys dragged suitcases under the shadow of drones overhead. Still, some families, tired of the endless displacement, insisted they would stay.
Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the Gaza media office, warned that targeting buildings in the city of nearly a million people risks “catastrophic mass displacement.” Gaza City, he said, has more than 51,000 apartment towers and blocks.
“Humanitarian zones” under fire
On Saturday, the Israeli military ordered residents to evacuate “without inspection,” saying it was expanding its ground offensive as part of “Operation Gideon’s Chariot II” to occupy Gaza City.
It designated al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, as a “humanitarian zone,” saying it housed field hospitals and aid stations. But Palestinians who had fled there earlier said the area had been repeatedly bombed, killing civilians.
Aid groups warn that al-Mawasi lacks clean water, food, medicine and functioning hospitals, leaving families dependent on sporadic aid deliveries.
For many Gazans, the warnings feel like a vicious cycle: ordered to leave one area declared “unsafe,” pushed into another designated “safe,” only to have that place bombed as well.
700 Days of War
The genocide in Gaza entered its 700th day on Friday, with Israel killing at least 64,300 Palestinians. The military campaign has devastated the enclave and pushed it toward starvation.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces genocide charges at the International Court of Justice over the war in the enclave, Anadolu Agency writes.
