Displaced Palestinians flee Gaza City due to an Israeli attack on Sept. 16, 2025.Mahmoud Issa/Reuters
This morning residents of Gaza City heard Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announce on the news that “Gaza is burning … we will not slow down or retreat until the mission is complete.”
The Israeli military offensive is no longer just air strikes or warnings to leave, as Gazans been experiencing for weeks. Israel’s actions have expanded to a full ground invasion deep into Gaza’s eastern and central neighbourhoods.
Strikes have focused on neighbourhoods including Shujaiya, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Tuffah and Al-Sabra, plus areas near Beach Camp, a refugee camp. Buildings are being flattened, houses are open to the sky with no roofs or walls, and the streets are full of rubble. Hospitals that are still working are barely able to deal with the rising number of wounded, while fuel and medicine are in very short supply.
More than 700,000 men, women and children in Gaza City are living under direct bombardment. They are trapped, or if they are on the roads fleeing for their lives, they have almost no safe routes.
Large waves of people are trying to move south, especially to Khan Younis and Al-Mawasi. Most are walking, carrying small bags, under constant bombing, on destroyed roads.
Palestinians search for wood to sell or use for cooking amid the rubble of a building hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza City on Sept. 14.Yousef Al Zanoun/The Associated Press
Ola Al Hessi, 32, began her journey from the Tal Al-Hawa area with her family early at dawn, carrying only a small bag with some food and water.
“What we are living is more than a war … this is mass death, choking life from all sides,” she said. “Since the bombing started, we feel like each day could be our last.”
In west Gaza, Nabeel Diab, 48, is getting ready to flee too, though he doesn’t know where.
“The bombs are closer than ever,” he said. “Every day a house next to us is hit. I decided I must leave, but there’s nowhere safe to go. We are walking hoping to reach a place that is not under fire.”
Israel launched its long-anticipated ground assault on Gaza City at dawn on Sept. 16.EYAD BABA/AFP/Getty Images
Statistics released by the Hamas-run government show that at least 350,000 people have been forced to leave Gaza City in the most recent wave of displacement over the past few days. The figure is expected to increase. More than 1,600 buildings have also been destroyed, and about 13,000 tents and makeshift shelters targeted by Israeli strikes.
On Tuesday, a United Nations commission established by the UN Human Rights Council stated that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Some residents reacted to the announcement with a mixture of vindication, fear and anger.
Israel unleashed a long-threatened ground assault on Gaza City on Tuesday, declaring ‘Gaza is burning’ as Palestinians there described the most intense bombardment they had faced in two years of war. Meanwhile a UN commission found that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Reuters
The death toll is at least 64,964, according to Palestinian health ministry figures.
“They talk about genocide?” asked Ms. Al Hessi. “I say we are already being destroyed. Not only by bombs, but by hunger, thirst, fear and global silence … We are humans buried every day, while the world is silent.”
Mr. Diab said it was time Israel was held “criminally responsible.”
“This is an advanced step and must be built upon,” he said. “It’s the first time someone said clearly what we are going through is genocide. It’s not just political talk it must be the start of real legal action.”
UN inquiry concludes top Israeli officials incited genocide in Gaza
But for those trapped and injured, the most immediate fear is how to escape and receive medical care. Most hospitals are no longer working, and those that are open are short of fuel, medicine and vital medical tools. Treating the wounded has become almost impossible.
Ashraf Abd lives in a small tent at the Palestine Stadium in central Gaza. He could not leave because of his injuries.
“In the last bombing, the tent next to ours was hit. I got hurt in my back, a bullet passed through my chest above the heart and I was hit in the head. I cannot move much, and all I have is this small tent,” he said.
Without money, he has no place to go. “We just stay here, endure the danger and wait for the bombing to end. But no one knows when.”