Palestinian families streamed out of Gaza City on Sunday as the Israeli military’s assault on the main urban center intensified. Amid the relentless bombardment, families—some on foot, others in crammed pickup trucks—headed south in a mass exodus, following Israeli evacuation orders. An AFP journalist on the ground reported seeing parents carrying their children and elderly people struggling to move, including a man in a wheelchair and another on crutches, all part of the long line of people seeking safety.
The Israeli military has issued multiple evacuation warnings for Gaza City, yet many residents say they have nowhere left to go, citing repeated Israeli strikes on the very southern areas where they have been told to seek refuge.
A Humanitarian Crisis Deepens
The mass displacement from Gaza City comes as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel, showing a sign of continued support despite a recent Israeli strike in Qatar. Meanwhile, the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued another warning on Sunday for residents in Gaza’s port area and Al-Rimal neighborhood to evacuate immediately. He directed them to a “humanitarian zone” in the south, a place Gazans say has no more space to pitch tents.
The scale of the displacement is a point of contention. Adraee claimed on Saturday that over 250,000 Gaza City residents had already fled, while Gaza’s civil defense agency put the figure closer to 68,000. Due to media restrictions and safety concerns, journalists on the ground are unable to independently verify either figure.
Before the latest assault, the United Nations estimated that around one million people lived in and around the city, an area where the UN officially declared a famine last month.
“Panic and Extreme Fear”
The scenes of desperation are palpable. AFP footage showed exhausted families moving along the coastal road near Nuseirat, south of Gaza City, with all their worldly possessions piled high on vehicles.
For those still in the city, the situation is dire. “The bombardment hasn’t stopped since dawn,” said Umm Alaa Shaaban, 45, a resident of the Tal al-Hawa district. “We haven’t slept all night… The sounds of shelling and explosions have not stopped until now.” She told journalists that the Israeli air force had “bombed many houses,” leaving her children “screaming in terror.” “We don’t know where to go,” she said. “The bombardment is everywhere.”
Mohammed Ghazal, 32, who fled from the Shujaiya neighborhood, described the strikes as relentless. “We are living in a state of panic and extreme fear,” he said. “The shelling hasn’t stopped since dawn, the explosions are intense, and the shooting continuous.” He claimed Israeli forces are using “terrifying methods” to force people to flee south.
In recent days, the Israeli military has targeted several high-rise buildings in Gaza City, claiming they were being used by Hamas militants. On Sunday, the military stated that it had struck another high-rise where Hamas had set up “observation posts.” According to the Gaza civil defense agency, Israeli strikes across the entire Gaza Strip have killed 23 people since Sunday morning.
“The World Watches Our Slaughter”
As the crisis deepens, many Palestinians feel abandoned by the international community. Khaled Khuwaiter, 36, who had already fled from the Zeitun neighborhood, spoke of the impossible situation. “I ask Israel: where are we supposed to go?” he said. He added that people who fled to the Al-Mawasi area in the south found no place to stay—”no tents, no water, no food.” “Bombing and killings are everywhere,” he lamented. “We have only God, because the world watches our slaughter and does nothing.”
Mirvat Abu Muammar, 30, who fled with her husband and three children, now lacks basic supplies. “Evacuation is humiliating,” she said. “We will wait and see. For two years, we have not known a moment of peace or sleep – only killing, destruction, and despair.”
The conflict began on October 7, 2023, with a Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1,219 people, most of them civilians. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has since killed at least 64,522 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, with the figures considered reliable by the United Nations.
