‘They want us homeless and hungry’: residents of Gaza City brace for Israeli invasion

The first time that the residents of Gaza City got an evacuation order was in October 2023. The Israeli army had ordered the 1.1 million people living in northern Gaza to move south ahead of the Israeli ground invasion. 

Following the return of hundreds of thousands of residents of the north to Gaza City after the temporary ceasefire earlier this year, the Israeli army is now issuing another evacuation order. On August 8, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office stated the Israeli army was preparing to take control of the entire city. In other words, permanent occupation. 

On August 13, the army confirmed that the plans were approved. The invasion is reportedly set to start on October 7, the day that would mark two years of genocide.

The memories of the fate awaiting residents who refuse to evacuate remain stark in people’s minds — mass killings and field executions, kidnappings and arrests, and indiscriminate wholesale destruction. Some families have started to look for new places outside of Gaza City in the central and southern parts of the Strip. Others are determined to stay, believing that Israel has the same plan for all of Gaza — and they are done following the army’s orders.

‘They want to wipe out our beloved city’

Kawthar Jundiyya, 53, is a mother of four in Gaza City trying to once again find a place in Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. When they first evacuated on October 16, 2023, she was displaced to her sister’s house for over a year. She returned to her home in the al-Zaytoun neighborhood east of Gaza City in January 2025 during the ceasefire.  

“We held our breath when we went back and returned to find our home still standing,” Jundiyya says. “It was a miracle. Our belongings were still there, too. Even when the war restarted after the January ceasefire, we felt content knowing that we were in our home.” 

For the families in Gaza lucky enough to still reside in a built home, a huge portion of the suffering is eased. “Staying in our home and our old neighborhood makes things better, despite the continuous bombing,” Jundiyya adds. “We can endure the harsh conditions so long as we’re home. Displacement is when the nightmare begins. Even enduring itself is hard.” 

Jundiyya and her family are still in Gaza City. They know that if they leave now, they won’t go back to find a home like last time. “We know that this time our home will be destroyed. They want to wipe out our beloved city. They want us all homeless and hungry with nowhere to go.”

The implication being that if Gaza’s population is homeless and starving, and then given the “choice” between staying in the street under bombardment or “voluntary emigration,” the vast majority will be forced to leave.   

There are also families in Gaza who never evacuated the first time, but this time are unsure. They themselves were also forced into continuous sagas of displacement within Gaza City, moving from one neighborhood to another.

Abdulrahim Shallah, 36, is a father of 5 children. He never left Gaza City since October 2023.

He and his family continued to flee from one place to another during the invasions of the neighborhoods of al-Shuja’iyya, Tal al-Hawa, Nasser, and Zaytoun. He now says he would rather evacuate than keep moving.

“I endured many invasions, conditions that no one can bear,” he says. I was holding my children and running and hiding from tanks and soldiers.”

“At the beginning, I thought the army would tolerate us, since we’re civilians and have five kids with us,” Shallah says. “But when I saw them killing families in their homes, when they killed parents in front of their children, and children in front of their parents, I was sure that if we fell into their hands, they would kill us in cold blood without hesitation.”

“If the army orders civilians to evacuate from Gaza City, they will destroy it and kill everyone they find,” he adds. “They have no ethics or principles. The only principle they have is to kill Palestinians.” 

Shallah says that if they leave the city, they will still return one day. “We can rebuild it then. But we can’t get our families back if they’re dead.”

‘We are done following orders’

Other families remain firm in their determination to stay, believing that the same conditions they would face during a new invasion will eventually be implemented in the entire Strip. They would rather be displaced in places they know. 

Raed Darwish, 51, is a father of six. Hr lives in a tent in a displacement center in Tal al-Hawa, after having evacuated al-Shuja’iyya east of Gaza. His home was bulldozed during the last invasion, but he has no plans to go anywhere else. 

“Why should we evacuate? We know this army by now,” Darwish says. “They sent us somewhere only to bomb us when we arrive. They say it’s safe, but we only find death. They say it’s for our safety, but who are they trying to fool?” 

“How do they care about our safety while they’ve been killing us for the past two years?” he adds. “We do not believe this army, and we are done following its orders. If they want to destroy our city, we will be here.” 

“If the Israeli army wants to destroy our city, we will be the witnesses,” Darwish vows.