Palestinians in Gaza City Confront Brutal Israeli Displacement Campaign with Nowhere to Go
“This should be the final stop—by the sea. They should let us stay here."
GAZA CITY—Palestinians in Gaza City are facing the full brunt of Israel’s military campaign to ethnically cleanse the entire city, once the largest in historic Palestine, with nowhere to go.
On Wednesday, the Israeli military extolled its escalating assault on Gaza City, with a spokesperson saying dozens of Israeli warplanes hit over 360 targets in the city, including high-rise buildings and infrastructure. “The first wave focused on the Daraj and Tuffah [neighborhoods]…the second and third waves included a large-scale attack on the Daraj, Tuffah, and Furqan areas,” the spokesperson posted on X. “In the coming days, the army will intensify the pace of attacks… in preparation for the next phases of the operation.” In addition to residential buildings and infrastructure, crowded tent encampments have also been destroyed.
Since the Israeli military launched its offensive to seize and take control of Gaza City last month, it has issued multiple displacement orders for different neighborhoods in the area, culminating in a mass expulsion order on Monday for the entire city of nearly 1 million Palestinians.
Many are simply unable to leave. Multiple displaced Palestinians in Gaza City told Drop Site News they cannot flee south because of the exorbitant travel costs, which can run as high as 4,000 shekels (around $1,200); the lack of space or shelter in severely overcrowded areas in the south; and the lack of safety from Israeli attacks anywhere in Gaza, including in so-called “humanitarian zones.”
“The Israelis destroyed our home and we didn’t know where to go or what to do. We left, then came back, and left and came back here again. We’ve moved around 20 times by now and still don’t know where to go,” said Issa, who was displaced to the coastline from his home in Al-Zarqa, a neighborhood in northeast Gaza City. Parked behind him on the sandy beach was a donkey cart stacked with mattresses, pots, and other belongings. “This should be the final stop—by the sea. They should let us stay here. Where are we supposed to go?” he told Drop Site, adding, “To go to the south, you need 3,000 shekels. And where will you find a tent? There are no tents…There’s no safety—not here, not anywhere…Right now, we’re displaced in the north. There’s no safety here or in the south.”
Displaced Palestinians in western Gaza City. September 8, 2025. (Video by Abdel Qader Sabah).
The UN Humanitarian Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory said nearly one million people in Gaza are now left with “no safe or viable options.”
“We are witnessing a dangerous escalation in Gaza city, where Israeli forces have stepped up their operations and ordered everyone to move south. This comes two weeks after famine was confirmed in the city and surrounding areas,” they said in a statement on Wednesday. “While Israeli authorities have unilaterally declared an area in the south as ‘humanitarian,’ it has not taken effective steps to ensure the safety of those forced to move there and neither the size nor scale of services provided is fit to support those already there, let alone new arrivals. Nearly one million people are now left with no safe or viable options—neither the north nor the south offers safety. Leaving northern Gaza means paying prohibitive costs for transport and safe passage, sums that most families simply cannot afford. It means navigating roads that are barely passable. It means finding a place to sleep either in the open air or in overcrowded displacement sites. And it means continued struggles to secure food, water, medical care, and shelter, and live without dignified and safe sanitation. Survivors in Gaza are exhausted.”
Monday’s displacement order was accompanied by a map of all of northern Gaza depicting three arrows pointing to the west and a large arrow pointing south—a graphic depiction of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaign. But, with the coastline and adjacent streets converted to a mass of tents and makeshift shelters, families cannot find space to displace to the south, even if they wanted to.
Approximately 50,000 Palestinians have been displaced within Gaza City, with a similar number fleeing to the south, according to the Site Management Cluster, a coalition of humanitarian groups tracking movement in Gaza. The Israeli military gave a far higher estimate, putting the number who have fled Gaza City at 200,000, according to the Times of Israel.
A number of displaced families in Gaza City told Drop Site that they did manage to flee to the south only to return to the north after finding no shelter there or being forced to pay rent for a tiny plot of land to pitch a tent.
“We went to the south and found no place. They kept telling us we needed money, and we had none. You need 3,000 to 4,000 shekels just to get there. And there’s no land without a fee—ten shekels per meter—and we don’t have it,” Feryal Al-Dada told Drop Site. “They kicked us out of Khan Younis. They said there was no space, no place for us,” she said, adding, “We stayed five days under the sun, with no food or water. I couldn’t breathe because of the dust and heat.”
Al-Dada stood in front of a makeshift shelter of cloth tarp and wooden stakes near the coastal road. “I’m trying to shelter myself near the street. Just to have a bit of privacy. My daughter is injured, and it’s me, my son, and my husband. We set up a small space to live in. I collected it all from the street.”
Nearby, Mazen Al-Damma hammered a piece of cloth into a thin wooden frame for a shelter. “We left for the south. We went to Al-Qarara [a town just north of Khan Younis]. They kicked us out, because there was no space, and redirected us to Deir Al-Balah. However, there was shooting and shelling there, so we couldn’t stay,” Al-Damma told Drop Site. He returned north to his home in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, but was forced to flee again last week after Israel issued displacement orders.
“We had to leave without knowing where we were going,” he said. “Honestly, it’s better for anyone not to go to the south. It’s a waste of money. Better to stay on your own land.” He added: “Wherever you are, all of Gaza is dangerous. The area they tell you is ‘safe’ is also dangerous. Deir Al-Balah is dangerous. All of Gaza is dangerous. There’s no safe area. They dropped leaflets on us three or four days ago. That’s what made us head south, but we found no land and came here instead.”
In a video statement on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, issued an open threat to all Palestinians in Gaza City: “I say to the residents of Gaza, I am taking advantage of this opportunity, and listen to me carefully: You have been warned—leave now.” His statement echoed comments following Israel’s mass displacement order for all of northern Gaza in October 2023, barely one week into the war, when Netanyahu also proclaimed, “leave now.”
“The order issued [Monday] morning by the Israeli military for the mass displacement of Gaza City residents is cruel, unlawful, and further compounds the genocidal conditions of life that Israel is inflicting on Palestinians,” Heba Morayef, the Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International, said in a statement. “For the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City who, for nearly two years, have been enduring relentless bombardment while starved and crammed in makeshift camps or taking refuge in extremely overcrowded buildings, this is a devastating and inhuman repeat of the mass displacement order issued for all of North Gaza on 13 October 2023.”
As the Israeli assault continues, Palestinians in Gaza City are being forced into an ever shrinking space.
“We loaded the car and headed to the south—to Khan Younis. Transportation alone cost us between 2,800 and 3,000 shekels. We arrived at Mawasi, Khan Younis and stayed there, but there was heavy shelling. They even shelled the tents. We fled Khan Younis and went to Deir al-Balah. We got there and found it was also a red zone—still a terrifying place,” a Palestinian man who didn’t provide his name told Drop Site. “Even if you find land to live on [in the south], whether it's public or privately owned, someone will come and say, ‘I want payment by the meter.’ The rate is 10 shekels per square meter. If you want to set up a tent that’s 4 meters by 4 meters—that's 16 square meters—you’re looking at 200 or 300 shekels a month,” he said. “We had no choice but to leave the south and come back to Gaza City.”
“As you can see, we’re putting up tarps, gathering blankets, tearing them apart and using them. We get curtains and wood from the streets to support ourselves,” he said, as his children stood nearby covered in dust. “We’re living on the beach. They know we’re here, on the beach. What is this child’s fault—we’re deprived of things she’s never even seen.”
Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Jawa Ahmad contributed to this report.
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PASS THIS ON.... Everywhere you can.
I think there is just one message that the whole world should send to Israel. You have been engaged in crimes against humanity, war crimes, violations of the Geneva Conventions, genocide, an illegal occupation for 80 some years. You have all been acting as terrorists - as a country.
You are put on warning. You cannot stay in the land that you are calling Israel. It is an illegal occupation. Your supposed homelands is going to be destroyed, You need to leave now or you will all be killed. That is the warning and ultimatum that the international community is issuing. You can heed the warning or not; but THE CARNAGE YOU ARE INFLICTING ON OTHER PEOPLE must stop. And if it does not you and your families will all be killed, your homes and country destroyed. What you are doing to others will come back to haunt you. There is no other way in this world ruled by a truly loving God.
Like it or not: this is justice revisited. So be it.
PASS THIS ON.... Everywhere you can.
As an American Jew, I condemn the evil policy of this ethnic cleansing. Jews, more than most groups that have suffered persecution at the hands of anti-semites, should have some compassion for the residents of Gaza and at least support the humanitarian aid that is so badly needed. I hope the flotilla of aid currently in the Mediterranean can land to distribute food and medicine. However, the IDF should allow the 600 truckloads a day that are needed. Netanyahu is prolonging the war to appease his right wing partners and avoid going to jail.