Between bombs and poverty: Palestinian families can't flee Israel's attack on Gaza City

In Gaza City, where bombs fall without pause and the nights are pierced by the sound of drones, families face a tormenting question each day: should they abandon their homes and head south, as the Israeli army has ordered, or should they remain in neighbourhoods which have been reduced to rubble?

For many, the answer is bitterly clear: "Evacuation is not an option."

This refusal does not stem from bravery or denial of death. It emerges from lived memory, from the realisation that displacement has become another name for humiliation, hunger, and despair.

The dilemma intensified as Israel continues its military operation, "Gideon's Chariots 2," now in its third week, tightening its grip around Gaza City from the north, south, and east.

As the bombardment escalates, the army insists that evacuation is the only way to survive. But for Palestinians, the so-called "safe zones" are anything but safe.

Separately speaking to The New Arab, numerous residents from Gaza City described that what lies in the south is not life but another chapter of suffering, crowded shelters, broken tents, the struggle for food, and the endless repetition of tragedy.

"Where should we go? And where should I start my displacement journey?" Iyad Abdul Jawad, a father of five from the al-Sabra neighbourhood in Gaza City, said to TNA. "Displacement is not just leaving your area. It is uprooting your soul. You start from zero, but with no guarantees." 

What makes the conditions even more difficult, according to Abdul Jawad, is that everyone needs thousands of dollars for transportation, rent, food, and water, and yet everyone still cannot protect their children.

"Where will I get this money when I can't even afford flour?" His voice trembles as he lists the costs: US$1,000 for a truck, US$2,000 for a rare flat, US$1,300 for a warehouse, US$700 for a tent. "And all of them are gone. Even misery here has a waiting list," he lamented.

In Gaza's Beach Camp, Umm Alaa, a widow with four children, shares the same despair.

"They [the Israeli army forces] tell us to go south, but where exactly? Down there, people are sleeping on top of each other. There is not enough bread, not even a corner to sit in," she told TNA.

"If I had a thousand dollars, I would buy medicine and food for my children, not pay to move us from one dangerous place to another," she said.

Price of displacement

On Wednesday, the Israeli army issued a statement urging residents of Gaza City and the northern Strip to evacuate, dismissing what it called "false rumours" that there was no space left in the south.

The army insisted that vast empty areas remain available in al-Mawasi and the central camps, which it said had been surveyed and prepared for displaced families, with plans to bring in tents, lay water pipelines, and establish humanitarian aid distribution centres.

Yet for many Palestinians in Gaza, these promises are hollow. "Every time, I thought I'd found safety. Then the bombing followed, food disappeared, or we were expelled," Mohammed Abdel Qader, a father displaced more than ten times, who has since returned to live amid the ruins of his home, told TNA.

Gaza-based political researcher Tayseer Abdullah told TNA that the Israeli army's maps were "nothing more than propaganda designed to mask destruction."

He described the designated areas for evacuation as "sandy fields, flooded lands, or strips near the fighting lines that are not fit for human life, and certainly not for a million people."

Abdullah explained that he constantly receives questions from friends in Gaza City, asking whether they should flee south or remain in their homes.

"My answer does not change," he said. "This is a deeply personal decision, and each family carries its responsibility alone. But in terms of the Israeli operation against Gaza City, there are no signs of retreat. On the contrary, all indications suggest the assault has already begun, from both the south and the north."

He noted that those who remain in Gaza and the north live under constant bombardment, facing death at any moment, while those who attempt to flee confront financial and logistical nightmares.

Moreover, Abdullah continued, the logistical challenges are just as crushing. "There is no proper means of transport. What remains are donkey carts or small tuk-tuks trying to navigate destroyed and dangerous roads. For two years, Israel has blocked the entry of fuel, gas, and spare parts for vehicles. So even if people want to move, they physically cannot," he said.

"Even when families reach the south," he continued, "they are met with a grim reality. There are no empty areas there. Al-Mawasi is overcrowded and suffocating. People from Gaza arrive searching for space to pitch a tent, and then they return home defeated because there is nowhere left."

"The map Israel published yesterday, pointing to so-called empty areas, is a cruel joke," he stressed, "these are combat zones—places the army itself has ordered to be evacuated. Publishing this map was only a way to shirk responsibility and cover itself from international criticism."

Abdullah argued that Israel has repeated this pattern before. "It previously claimed it would prepare tent cities in Rafah before attacking, and it was a lie. Time and again, it spreads falsehoods that only increase people’s suffering and provide cover for massacres against those too poor or too vulnerable to leave Gaza."

He concluded, "The reality on the ground is the same: families hunted, killed, displaced, and abandoned without help. Everyone has let them down. And the Israeli narratives are nothing but smokescreens for crimes committed in broad daylight."

The memories of displacement still haunt those who once tried to move south. Thirty-year-old Dana Al-Lababidi recalled how "temporary" solutions stretched into months of humiliation: time in schools turned into cages, a villa for a week, a tent near a chicken farm, and then a tiny room without water.

"That humiliation broke us," she wrote on Facebook. "Now people would rather die in their homes than live under torn tarpaulins."

Meanwhile, Israeli officials continue to promote the idea of "safe zones." But even Israeli media challenge the claim.

A Haaretz investigation revealed that more than two-thirds of the marked zones are uninhabitable or dangerous, with actual liveable land amounting to only a handful of square kilometres.

According to the investigation, Israeli researchers called the maps "misleading," underscoring what Palestinians already know: that safety does not exist under occupation bombs.

Caught between these narratives, Gazans are left with two impossible choices. Stay, and risk death under rubble or hunger. Flee, and face exploitation, homelessness, and despair. Most have chosen to stay, not out of courage, but because the South no longer offers refuge.