How the citizens of Gaza fared after Israel asked them to flee

For many civilians in Gaza, fleeing Israeli attacks has become a grim cycle. Israeli evacuation orders since October have prompted more than a million people to move from one destination to another, packing up their belongings and seeking transportation — by vehicle, cart or on foot — to escape airstrikes and ground fighting between Israel and Hamas.

The most recent example is Rafah in southern Gaza, a city that has grown to more than 1.4 million inhabitants due to forced displacement. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that his army would invade the city to root out Hamas, but that it would provide humanitarian aid and “facilitate an orderly exodus of the population.”

Jake Sullivan, the US National Security Advisor, said so major ground invasion in Rafah would be a mistake, not least because it would further compromise humanitarian access. Displacement has contributed to a hunger crisis sweeping the region, and the United Nations has said an invasion could send an already catastrophic situation sliding “deeper into the abyss.”

Some citizens say they have fled again and again. As many people face the prospect of being displaced again, here’s a look at what happened a few times when Israel ordered civilians to evacuate.

North Gaza

Israel began telling more than a million civilians to evacuate northern Gaza about two weeks before the ground invasion on October 27, although the area was ravaged by Israeli airstrikes shortly after the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7.

“Hamas is using you as a human shield,” Admiral Daniel Hagari, an Israeli military spokesman, said on October 22, calling on civilians still in northern Gaza to move south.

The Israeli army also dropped Arabic-language leaflets over the area, warning that anyone who did not move south “could be considered an associate 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. Still, hundreds of thousands of people obeyed the order and moved into southern Gaza, taking with them some belongings from an area already devastated by airstrikes before the full-scale invasion began.

The south proved to be no way out of danger. An investigation by The New York Times 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 said Israel plans to minimize civilian casualties in the fight against Hamas, and Israeli officials said Hamas fighters had set up checkpoints to prevent people from following orders to move.

Khan Younis

In early December, after a week-long 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 hours’ notice. Israel also dropped leaflets on Khan Younis and broadcast information about which parts of the city were safe at any given time.

However, several Palestinians said the orders to leave or move into Khan Younis were confusing, not least because they seemed to shift over time and left little opportunity to collect belongings. Furthermore, obeying the orders meant moving family members – many of whom had been displaced several times before – to a new place where prospects for shelter and basic needs were uncertain.

Citizens also said that when they fled as instructed, they sometimes found themselves in locations embroiled in fighting or subject to airstrikes.

Rafa

The most recently designated large-scale safe zone is Rafah, which lies against the closed Egyptian border and has swelled enormously due to displacement. Without adequate accommodation, many of the new residents have set up makeshift tents.

Rafah has been subject to airstrikes and fighting in recent weeks. In one example, health authorities in Gaza said on February 12 that at least 67 people had been killed in airstrikes in the city overnight. The Israeli army had launched an operation to rescue two people held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 attack.

Al-Mawasi

Israeli authorities have asked people at least twice to go to Al-Mawasi, a coastal town in southern Gaza that could be a destination for people wanting to leave Rafah. Aid officials have said the village lacks shelter, humanitarian aid and basic infrastructure.