For many civilians in Gaza, fleeing Israeli attacks has become a grim cycle. Israeli evacuation orders have prompted more than a million people to move from one destination to another since October, each time packing their belongings and seeking transportation — by vehicle, cart or foot — to escape airstrikes and ground fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The most recent example is Rafah, in southern Gaza, a city that has swelled to more than 1.4 million people due to forced displacement. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his army would invade the city to root out Hamas, but that he would provide humanitarian aid and “facilitate an orderly exodus of the population.”
Jake Sullivan, US national security adviser, has said a major ground invasion of Rafah would be a mistake, not least because it would further jeopardize humanitarian access. The displacement has contributed to a hunger crisis sweeping the territory and the United Nations has said an invasion could mean an already disastrous situation slides “deeper into the abyss”.
Some citizens say they have left again and again. As many people face the prospect of being displaced again, here’s a look at what happened in some cases when Israel told civilians to leave.
Northern Gaza
Israel began telling more than a million citizens to evacuate northern Gaza about two weeks before its October 27 ground invasion, although the area was hit by Israeli airstrikes soon after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7.
“Hamas is using you as a human shield,” Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said on October 22, urging civilians still in northern Gaza to move south.
The Israeli military also dropped leaflets in Arabic in the area, warning that anyone who did not move south “may be considered a collaborator in a terrorist organization”.
The United Nations said the evacuation order was impractical and the US asked Israel to delay its invasion to give civilians more time. Even so, hundreds of thousands of people obeyed the order and moved into southern Gaza, moving some possessions away from an area already devastated by airstrikes before the full-scale invasion began.
The south proved to be no escape from danger. A New York Times investigation in December found that Israel had used some of the largest and most destructive bombs in its arsenal in southern Gaza, posing a pervasive threat to civilians.
Mr Netanyahu says Israel aims to minimize civilian casualties while fighting Hamas, and Israeli officials said Hamas fighters had set up checkpoints to prevent people from complying with orders to move.
Khan Yunis
In early December, after a week of ceasefire, Israel launched a major military operation in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza. Many civilians there had fled to the city from northern Gaza.
The Israeli military again warned civilians to leave parts of Khan Younis for Rafah and other places further south, although residents said they sometimes had only a few hours’ notice. Israel also dropped leaflets over Khan Younis and broadcast information about which parts of the city were safe at all times.
Several Palestinians said, however, that the orders to leave or move into Khan Younis were confusing, mainly because they seemed to shift over time and left little opportunity to gather assets. Moreover, obeying orders meant transporting relatives—many of whom had been displaced several times before—to a new place where the prospects for shelter and staples were uncertain.
Civilians also said that when they fled as instructed, they sometimes found themselves in locations mired in fighting or subject to airstrikes.
Rafa
The most recently designated large-scale safe zone is Rafah, which is on the closed Egyptian border and has been greatly enlarged by displacement. Without adequate accommodation, many of its new residents have set up makeshift tents.
Rafa has come under airstrikes and fighting in recent weeks. In one example, health authorities in Gaza said on February 12 that at least 67 people were killed overnight in airstrikes in the city. Israel’s military had launched an operation to rescue two people held hostage in Gaza after the October 7 attack.
Al-Mawashi
Israeli authorities asked people at least twice to head to Al-Mawasi, a coastal village in southern Gaza that could be a destination for people asked to leave Rafah. Aid officials said the village lacked shelter, humanitarian aid and basic infrastructure.
