The Israeli military has issued an evacuation order for hundreds of thousands of people: “To all residents of Gaza City in every neighbourhood … evacuate immediately through Al Rasheed Street toward the humanitarian zone in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis,” spokesman Avichay Adraee said in a statement posted online Tuesday in Arabic.
The announcement is the most sweeping since the war in Gaza began in October, 2023. Evacuation is no longer limited to one area or neighbourhood, as previous Israeli military orders have instructed; it now covers the entirety of Gaza City, which is still sheltering more than 700,000 people and has been enduring a famine since August.
It signals that the assault on the Gaza Strip has entered a new phase. In one hour Tuesday, seven residential buildings were destroyed, causing shock and panic among civilians and triggering a desperate race to leave.
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The towers were located near major intersections, and the air strikes came during rush hour, when traffic was heavier than usual. Main streets turned into narrow paths full of rubble and displaced families. The sound of crying and screaming filled the air with every new explosion. The destroyed towers blocked roads and made movement almost impossible.
Roads were no longer safe. The few roads that were open were jammed with cars and people on foot. Walking just one kilometre took more than 30 minutes.
Mahmoud Al Sayed, a resident, said it was becoming impossible to move around.
“There are no more streets to drive in the city because of evacuations and destruction,” he said.
Palestinians have been hearing unofficial reports in the Israeli media that Israel is considering the creation of a new “humanitarian zone” called “Mawasi 2” west of Gaza City, to gather civilians in one area and set up a demilitarized administration.
The Israel Defence Forces have not confirmed it, but in the past residents have been told by the IDF to go to humanitarian zones in Al-Mawasi only to be hit by more bombs.
Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City amid an Israeli military operation following an evacuation on Tuesday.Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
Although the militant group Hamas and its institutions were not visibly present on the ground Tuesday, the Hamas-run Interior Ministry issued a statement rejecting Israel’s claims that the towers were used for military purposes and warned Gazans against moving to so-called safe zones as directed by the Israeli military, saying those areas had also been bombed and put women and children at risk.
Regardless, the mass displacement continued. Many headed south to any place they believed might be safer – only to rush back to their original locations in the north. Some set up tents among the ruins where buildings once stood.
Others, like Hassan Saleh, were sleeping with their families on the streets.
“After we heard the evacuation orders, I took my family to the central area of Gaza, hoping to find a place to rent or a spot for our tent. But we found nothing. Everything was either too expensive or not available,” said Mr. Saleh, 55.
“We spent our first night on the street, cold and hungry. The next day, we decided to return north to a place we know well. It’s not completely safe, but it was the better choice.”
Conditions on the ground kept getting worse: endless explosions, alarms blaring via loudspeakers on Israeli drones, streets filled with rubble and displaced people.
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Yet some people remained defiant. Led by tribal elders, health officials and families of the dead, some Gazans marched along the broken streets carrying signs and raising the Palestinian flag.
“We will not leave,” one read.
“We will stay in Gaza until the last breath,” another read.
Some volunteers were trying to help those choosing to stay in Gaza City. Heartbeats is an initiative providing psychological, moral and material support to families, including distributing meals and providing water in areas cut off from supplies.
Founder Rami Barbareh said: “Our goal is to give families a sense of stability and safety, even for a few hours a day, to help them resist and survive in their homes.”