Gaza City's residents defy Israel's 'Gideon's Chariots 2' assault, refuse to be displaced

Despite the escalation of Israeli attacks on Gaza City and the announcement of a massive new military campaign dubbed "Gideon's Chariots 2," thousands of Palestinians are refusing to leave their homes, insisting that there is nowhere left to flee.

For many, displacement has become a cycle of endless suffering, and the promise of safety in the south has long since evaporated.

Speaking to The New Arab, Palestinian residents said that the whole Gaza Strip has been transformed into a killing field by Israel, with death everywhere.

At dawn, heavy explosions shook Gaza City, rattling buildings already fractured by months of Israeli bombardment.

Shortly afterwards, the Israeli military declared that "Gideon's Chariots 2" had begun, describing it as a long-term plan to encircle and storm Gaza City.

The announcement was followed by statements from Israeli Defence Minister Yisrael Katz, who said that the operation aimed to "completely occupy Gaza City," claiming that "Gaza after this operation will not be the same as in the past."

Israeli outlets revealed that five divisions and twelve combat brigades will be involved, with a reserve mobilisation that could reach 130,000 troops deployed across Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and the northern front.

Some reports indicated that the manoeuvre could last until 2026, framed as part of what the army calls a "final resolution" against Hamas.

But for the residents of Gaza, the official rhetoric translates into one thing: forced evacuation, renewed displacement, and the prospect of another humanitarian catastrophe.

Yet the reaction from civilians in Gaza City has been remarkably unified. Rather than moving south, where conditions are already dire, families are choosing to remain in their homes even if those homes are now cracked walls and rubble.

In the Sabra neighbourhood, where tanks and airstrikes have already scarred the streets, 32-year-old Ahmed Hamas leaned on the remains of his bombed house.

His voice was steady but was clearly exhausted. "They told us to leave and go south, but where do we go?" he asked TNA. "There is no space left. Schools are overflowing, hospitals are overcrowded, and we are exhausted from moving repeatedly. Death follows us, whether in the north or the south."

Hamad, who recently received his first baby girl, added that his family had already been displaced three times. Each displacement, he added, was like a fresh wound—stripping away their health, dignity, and sense of belonging.

"Every time we move, we lose more. We are losing our lives slowly," he added.

In the al-Naser neighbourhood, north of Gaza, 36-year-old Mohammed Odwan told TNA that he will "never leave his place."

"There is no safe place in Gaza, so now we have to wait for our fate […] We have nothing to lose in this war. We lost everything," he said.

"During the war, I was forced to be displaced seven times. Some of them, we didn't even find a tent. We ended up on the streets. Eventually, we returned here because at least we had walls, even if broken," he said.

"Now, the south cannot accommodate us. Every place is exposed to bombing," Huda Abu Ramadan, a Gaza-based elderly woman, who lost her husband during the war, told TNA.

She dismissed Israeli claims about safe passages and aid centres. "We tried those before. There was no safety, only hunger, fear, and death," she said.

Further east, in Zeitoun, a neighbourhood now enduring relentless bombardment, 27-year-old Mohammed Abu Rayala described how the area had been emptied out by shelling.

"It has become a ghost town. Some families are hiding in basements; others cling to their homes because they know the south will not provide shelter. We went to Rafah months ago, but the tents were unbearable. No water, no food, no privacy. We decided it was better to return and face death here than die slowly there," he told TNA.

The refusal to move is widespread. In the central market, shopkeeper Mahmoud al-Farra recounted the collective decision his family made. "We won't leave again. We are tired of carrying our belongings from place to place, tired of sleeping on cold floors, and tired of searching for drinking water. Death is everywhere, so why should we abandon our homes?" he said.

He described the despair of seeing his children live without safety, school, or stability.  He stressed that exhaustion is no longer just physical but emotional, a weariness that no aid package can relieve.

Ahed Ferwana, a Gaza-based political analyst, believes that "Gideon's Chariots 2" attack is not only a military manoeuvre but also a continuation of Israel's long-standing strategy of demographic engineering in Gaza.

By pushing residents out of the north and concentrating them in the south, Israel creates the conditions for permanent displacement.

"Such tactics are designed to break Gaza's social fabric and force Palestinians into what one described as an unbearable life with no future," Ferwana said. 

"The collective refusal to leave has become a quiet act of resistance, a way of asserting existence in the face of policies designed to erase it. Even as Israeli officials speak of years-long operations and a future without Gaza as it was, Palestinians insist that they will endure," he added.

"The south is no refuge," he further elaborated, "the north is under fire, but their home, however broken, is the last space they can cling to."

In Gaza, people know they are caught between two forms of death: sudden death under the bombs or slow death on the roads of exile, but they said their own word, "they will not leave because there is any chance for survival," Ferwana concluded.