Gaza Strip: 100,000s Flee Homes As Israel Warns Of Ground Invasion

In an unprecedented move, the Israeli military has ordered all Palestinians living in northern Gaza and Gaza City to evacuate their homes within 24 hours. The order, which affects over 1.1 million people, has sparked panic and confusion among residents, many of whom are unsure of where to go or how to leave the area safely.

A Stark Choice

For Naji Jamal, a 34-year-old health clinic worker living in the Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza, the decision of whether to evacuate or stay put is a difficult one. On the one hand, he fears for the safety of his family and the possibility of being caught in the crossfire of a ground invasion. On the other hand, he is reluctant to leave his home and belongings behind, and he worries that he will not be able to find a safe place to stay in southern Gaza.

There is no safe haven, there is no place that is not being shelled and besieged, there is no place to go," Jamal said. "Its an existential question, but there is no answer.

A Mass Exodus

As the deadline for evacuation approaches, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing their homes in northern Gaza and Gaza City. Many are heading south, towards the relative safety of the southern part of the territory. However, the journey is fraught with danger, as Israeli airstrikes continue to pound the area. Aid groups have appealed to the international community to stop what they denounce as a possible war crime of forcible population transfer.

In understaffed and poorly supplied hospitals, Palestinian doctors say they have no choice but to stay put. There is no way to evacuate Shifa, Gazas biggest hospital, its general director Mohammad Abu Selim said. Even though the hospital was in chaos — its electricity dwindling under an Israeli siege, its beds overwhelmed, its morgue overflowing — Abu Selim said there was simply no other safe place in Gaza to put 600 patients, many of them in serious condition from the attacks.

To ask us to evacuate is ridiculous, its impossible, Abu Selim said.

Caught in the Crossfire

Despite the Israeli militarys claims that its airstrikes target militant infrastructure and not civilians, many Palestinians have been killed or injured in the attacks. Israeli airstrikes on evacuating vehicles have killed at least 70 people, according to the Hamas press office.

I dont trust them," said Ali Abdul Bari, a 37-year-old resident of Gaza City, referring to the Israeli military. But I will always do whatever I can to keep my family safe.

Baris apartment on the northwest edge of Gaza City was flattened in a huge airstrike late Thursday. Dazed and weary from nights spent awake, he arrived in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, after the evacuation order, but couldnt fit all his family members in the car. He promised his aunt and uncle that he would return for them Saturday. Bari said the decision was simple for him.

I am responsible for my parents, my brothers and my sisters, he said.

A Refusal to Leave

Despite the danger, some Palestinians are refusing to leave their homes. They watched the convoys pass, remembering previous tides of Palestinian refugees who fled other wars only to never be able to return home. Some Palestinians point back to what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe, of Israels creation in 1948, when some 700,000 fled or were driven from their homes in what is now Israel. Gazas Hamas rulers have also urged people not to flee, describing Israels order as psychological warfare to break their solidarity.

This is the Nakba, all of our traumas, all over again, said activist Yasser Hasouneh, in Gaza City. We will not be intimidated.

A Lack of Options

For many Palestinians, the decision of whether to evacuate or stay put is not simply a matter of fear or defiance. For some, it is a matter of practicality. Jamal, in the Jabaliya camp, simply doesnt have a car. The thought of piling his infant son, ailing mother and 30 other family members onto a horse cart and sending them through a war zone makes him shudder. He said he was resigned to whatever God had in store for him.

This way we will be together and can read the Quran and pray, he said.

The Israeli militarys order to evacuate northern Gaza and Gaza City has created a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented proportions. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing their