Displaced repeatedly. Forced to live in tent camps or amid the ruins of their homes. Stricken by hunger and deprived of medical supplies.
Now, 22 months into the war, around 1 million Palestinians are bracing for another catastrophe after the Israeli security cabinet’s decision to take control of Gaza City. Such an offensive would force them toward the south of the territory, and an uncertain future.
“Since this morning, after hearing the news of evacuation of Gaza City, I have been feeling anxious and afraid,” said Umm Ibrahim Banat, a 55-year-old mother originally from northern Gaza, who has already been displaced four times. “Where will we go with the children and the elderly? I swear we are exhausted from displacement, starvation, and being driven from one place to another.”
“Now,” she said, “We are the walking dead.”
After a 10-hour overnight meeting, the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced on Friday that his security cabinet had approved a plan to take over Gaza City, marking another escalation of Israel’s offensive that has killed at least 61,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.
According to Israel’s Channel 12 the plan, which would mean sending ground troops into the territory, could displace tens of thousands of people and further disrupt efforts to deliver food to the territory and force approximately 1 million Palestinians in Gaza City and other areas into evacuation areas in the southern part of the strip.
“Gaza has been completely destroyed – what more can they do?”, said Banat, whose daughter Maryam was killed with her husband and children. “We have lost the best of our youth; our territory is a huge prison besieged by land, sea and air; the destruction has become unbearable; diseases are spreading, tents stretch as far as the eye can see, water is contaminated, prices are insane, hospitals are in ruins, our lives are utterly tragic! What more do they want?”
The timing of another Israeli major ground operation is unclear since it is likely to require mobilising thousands of troops. However, according to sources familiar with the details of the meeting, the evacuation of Gaza City is scheduled to be completed by 7 October.
It is unclear how many people still reside in the city, which was Gaza’s largest centre of population before the war. In the opening weeks of the conflict in 2023, hundreds of thousands fled under evacuation orders in the opening weeks of the conflict, but many returned during a ceasefire at the start of this year.
Although residents of Gaza City say they have not yet received an evacuation order, many are already preparing to leave once again, hoping to find a safe place to live in the south.
“If we are ordered to evacuate, I will leave everything and go, fearing for my family and children,” says Abu Nasser Mushtaha, 35, a father of four and a resident of Gaza’s Rimal neighbourhood. “The cost of staying would be too high. I have already lost enough; my mother was killed at the beginning of the war when the Israeli occupation bombed a neighbouring house.”
“I have already started making a financial plan to reduce expenses and planning to move only the essential items, said Mushtaha, before concluding: “This will, without a doubt, be the end of Gaza’s people.”
Palestinians, at least 90% of whom have already been displaced at least once by the war and of whom nearly one in 10 have been injured in Israeli attacks, are braced for further misery. There is little remaining of the healthcare system, and aid agencies such as the UN have been largely shut out by Israel.
The war has already forced thousands to find refuge in cities such as Khan Younis and Rafah. Now, with both reduced to little more than rubble, it is unclear where civilians escaping the new offensive can hope to live. For this reason, while thousands are already planning yet another flight, just as many are determined to remain in Gaza City – even if it means risking their lives.
“How can all these people be emptied into the south, which is already overcrowded?” asked Hossam al-Saqa, 46, a father of two from Gaza City. “We are staying in our homes and on our land, holding on to them. I will not leave, even if all the weapons are pointed at my head.”
“I see Netanyahu’s and Israel’s propaganda as nothing more than media fireworks meant to intimidate and spread fear among the people,” he said. “This will not scare us, for God is with us, and He is stronger than everyone.”
Al-Saqa, like others in Gaza City, said he saw the occupation plan as an attempt to pressure Hamas into accepting surrender after talks mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar appeared to have broken down last month.
“This is our land where we grew up since childhood, and we will not give it up easily,” said Ibrahim Abu al-Husni, 47, who lost his eldest son, who was 23, during the war. “I will not leave this city.”
“I will live here,” he said, And I will die here.”
