Gaza City must be ‘evacuated’, says Israel; but where do 1 million people go — into the sea?

• Only a small fraction — some 14,840 Palestinians of the nearly 1 million the UN estimates are in Gaza City — have left their homes

• Already in early August, entire neighbourhoods had been pummelled into sand lots

• The last time residents of the city had to evacuate, Rafah and Khan Younis still stood in the south; now, Rafah is gone, Khan Younis barely there

• For medical workers, older and sick people, leaving Gaza City is nearly impossible; so their families also stay put

• In the temporary shelter camps, the tents are just 10 centimetres apart; toilets overflow

As artillery and bombs pound around Gaza's largest city and Israel promises a punishing new offensive, Palestinians in the city are paralysed with fear — unsure where to go, when to leave and whether they will ever return.

Israel has declared Gaza City, in the north of the territory, to be a combat zone while the military moves forward with plans to overtake it in a campaign to push Hamas into submission. Parts of the city are already considered “red zones”, where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate ahead of expected heavy fighting.

That has left residents — many of whom returned after fleeing the city in the initial stages of the Israel-Hamas war — on edge. With Israeli bulldozers razing the ground in occupied neighbourhoods and Israeli leaders supporting the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, departing the city now could mean leaving for good. Moving costs thousands of dollars, and finding space in the overcrowded south to pitch a tent feels impossible. But staying behind, they say, could be deadly.

“The Israeli forces, when they mark any area by red colour and they request the people to leave, they really will destroy it,” said Mohammed Alkurdi, who is sheltering in Gaza City along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians.

“So it's like you decide whether to live or die. It's very simple like that.”

An impossible choice between staying and fleeing

Since Israel declared the area a combat zone on Friday, a small fraction — some 14,840 Palestinians of the nearly 1 million the UN estimates are in Gaza City — have left their homes in the city as of 1 September, Monday, most to flee south, according to the Site Management Cluster, a joint humanitarian body that coordinates assistance for people in displacement sites.

A fraction of them, about 2,200, have moved to new places within Gaza City after being displaced by Israeli attacks.

Alkurdi, a project manager and consultant, said he can hear Israeli forces from the apartment where he's sheltering as they “erase the area completely”.

Zeitoun was once Gaza City's largest neighbourhood, filled with markets, schools and clinics. Over the last month, large swaths of it and the neighbouring area of Sabra have been flattened, according to satellite photos reviewed by the Associated Press from early August and early September. The photos show that entire blocks have been pummelled or bulldozed into empty, sandy lots.

“It's not something partial like before. It’s 100 per cent,” Alkurdi said. “The house, I'm telling my friends, keeps dancing all day. It keeps dancing, going right and left like an earthquake.”

Many of the people in the city moved back to the north during a ceasefire in January, hoping to find their homes intact. Alkurdi’s home was completely destroyed, so he’s now living alone in a western area of the city. His children and wife were able to leave Gaza last year. He said he would flee south if his home fell under an evacuation order.

Amjad Shawa, the director of a Palestinian NGO network, left his home in the upscale Rimal neighbourhood in the early days of the war and also returned there with his family in January. He, like Al Kurdi, said his family would likely leave Gaza City if their area received an evacuation order.

But leaving this time would be different, he said. “Gaza will be levelled and destroyed. Last time, I had my car. There was fuel. Everyone had his income, his money.”

Back then, the cities of Rafah and Khan Younis still stood in southern Gaza.

Now, after months of bombardment, “there is no Rafah. Almost no Khan Younis”, Shawa said.

Leaving is nearly impossible for some

For others — medical workers, older and sick people — leaving Gaza City is nearly impossible.

“The elders, they’re saying we will die here,” Shawa said. “This has pushed the other members of the family to stay, not to leave.”

“My aunt is elderly and can’t walk, and my mother also struggles with mobility. We have so many belongings and no way to manage them. It feels unthinkable,” said Norhan Almuzaini, a medical programme officer in northern Gaza for the group Medical Aid for Palestinians.

Amal Seyam is the general director of the Women’s Affairs Centre in Gaza. Originally from the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, her home was destroyed by bombardment. For nearly four months, she has been sheltering in the Nasr neighbourhood in the city’s west, where she stays alongside her colleagues inside the women's centre.

Seyam has been displaced five times since the war began — three times within the city and twice to the south, in Rafah and Khan Younis. Each time, she fled with nothing.

When asked if she would consider leaving Gaza City, she said, “I will only leave when everyone who needs me here leaves. As long as there’s a woman who needs me, I am staying. All of Gaza feels like it’s in the red zone now anyway. The bombing is happening metres from us, not kilometres.”

She paused, her voice breaking into tears.

“Many people have started packing. Many have already left. Do you know what displacement means? It means moving once again, building your life once again, buying new things, blankets, tents, all over again.”

Dire conditions persist throughout Gaza

Those who have left Gaza City over the past few months have found dire conditions elsewhere in Gaza. Their arrival has crowded already overflowing tent camps and sent prices of basic goods up.

Iman El-Naya, from Khan Younis, fled Gaza City three months ago. “The beach is crowded. Everywhere is crowded. There's no hygiene. It's a struggle to get water and food.”

“I go and stand in line for water. Getting bread is a struggle. Everything is even more expensive after the people from the north came here.”

Shorouk Abu Eid, a pregnant woman from Gaza City, was displaced to Khan Younis four months ago. She said the arrival of more people from the north is creating an even more tragic situation.

“There is no privacy, no peace of mind. Places I used to walk to in 5 or 10 minutes are taking me around an hour now because of the congestion. There’s barely 10 centimetres between tents.”

Jamal Abu Reily lamented that the bathrooms are overflowing and that there's so little room for new arrivals.

“How are we going to all fit here?” he asked. ”Where are they going to stay? In the sea?”