ON 16 SEPTEMBER, the Israeli military announced an expansion of its ground offensive in Gaza City, hitting more than 850 targets in the following two weeks while continuing operations in Rafah and Khan Younis.
Coupled with fresh displacement orders, the assault has unleashed yet another mass exodus from Gaza City — but this time, as proposed peace deals create headlines, the question for residents is will they ever be able to return to the city?
Although Israeli forces have entered Gaza City — before withdrawing again with the ceasefire agreement last January — this latest operation is the heaviest to date, forcing residents to leave on a scale not seen previously.
The escalation follows a decision announced on 8 August, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the security cabinet had approved a proposal to seize control of Gaza City as part of a broader plan to occupy the entire territory.
“This is not only about occupying Gaza or pressing for a hostages’ exchange deal. Israel is pursuing broader strategic goals in this war — destroying Gaza City and advancing what amounts to a project of mass displacement beyond the borders of the Gaza Strip,” Palestinian writer Akram Atallah told The Journal during an interview from London.
He added, “If the plan continues, the next stage could be a military operation in the central area of the Strip, eventually pushing people towards Sinai — unless something intervenes to halt it.”
The plan – which is still live despite talk of peace deals – includes forcing up to one million Palestinians to move south, a step that risks worsening Gaza’s already dire humanitarian crisis.
According to Israeli officials, the new strategy aims to dismantle Hamas completely, end its military and administrative control in the territory, secure the release of Israeli hostages, establish a security buffer zone inside Gaza, and create a new local civilian administration not affiliated with either Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
The plan also involves deploying about 50,000 ground forces into the few remaining areas of Gaza that have not been completely destroyed, which account for about 25% of the Strip.
The Times of Israel reported that the large-scale invasion would involve at least four to five divisions of the Israeli military — a mix of permanent brigades and mobilised reservists, including elite infantry and armoured units.
Israel has called up tens of thousands of reservists to reinforce the expanded operations, increasing the number of troops under the army’s Southern Command.
Displacement, hunger, cost and cold
Rajab Abdallah, 46, left Gaza City last Tuesday morning with his wife and two children, seeking shelter with friends in Al-Zawaida in central Gaza, after what he described as a terrifying night of bombardment near his home on Nasser Street.
“They have been using robots to destroy residential buildings in our area,” Rajab said.
“These are old military vehicles converted into massive mobile bombs, planted in residential tower or building and detonated remotely to flatten entire buildings. Their effect is crueller and more devastating than conventional shelling — turning people into fragments in an instant.
“We left in the morning, the street was full of quadcopter drones shooting everywhere we were running from the death,” he said.
We had delayed going south because we could not find shelter. Now, like so many others, in our second displacement from Gaza, I am in a tent on a friend’s land.”
Since late August, the Israeli army has been advancing slowly into Gaza City, eventually reaching the city centre. Witnesses said the military used heavy fire, quadcopter drones and remotely detonated robots inside buildings to push people westwards. Once there, they came under further air strikes, forcing many to move again towards the south.
Hundreds of people are still evacuating via the coastal road, leaving northern Gaza behind. Only about 80,000 residents remain in Gaza City, but local sources say they are expected to leave in the coming hours and days — if they are not killed.
According to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, the total number of reported Palestinian casualties since 7 October 2023 increased to 65,062 deaths and 165,697 injuries.
The MoH said that fatalities and injuries among people attempting to access aid have also risen, with 2,504 deaths and more than 18,381 injuries recorded since 27 May 2025.
In addition, the ministry reported that as of 17 September, 432 malnutrition-related deaths had been documented since October 2023, including 146 children. Data released on 27 August shows that four of these deaths were recorded in 2023, 49 in 2024, and 260 between January and 27 August 2025.
Rajab wishes to leave the Gaza Strip as he believes that what is coming will be worse. He says, “This is a huge displacement is happening slowly and painfully, then turning into forced expulsion. This is no longer just a deal — there is pressure to displace people and annex Gaza, turning it into a tourist-linked project as in proposals like the [initial] Trump plan.
I am worried we will not go back to Gaza city again.
“People are desperate — searching for fabric to build a tent, looking for water and shelter. Winter is coming with rain and floods, and no one is thinking about politics; they only know war or ceasefire.
“Hundreds of thousands who are now fleeing have nowhere to go. There is no empty land, no houses opening their doors. Displacement is costly: rents have soared, a tent now comes at a price, and apartments that once cost $200 are being offered at $1,000.
“Some families put their children and wives in a tent so they can rent out their house to buy food. Cash is scarce, people are exhausted, and they have nothing left to collect.”
Recognition means little on the ground for Gazans
For people in Gaza, the recent wave of international recognition of Palestine brings little relief. Unlike the excitement seen abroad, residents in Gaza are too consumed with survival — searching for shelter, water, and food for their hungry children — to celebrate.
The diplomatic milestone unfolded last week, when Luxembourg, Belgium, Andorra, France, Malta, and Monaco officially recognised the State of Palestine during the “Two-State Solution Conference” in New York.
Their decision followed announcements a day earlier by Britain, Canada, Australia, and Portugal, joining a growing list of countries to extend recognition. In total, 158 out of 193 UN member states have now recognized Palestine.
The first declaration of a Palestinian state was made in 1988 in Algiers by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
Um Ahmed Saleem, 42, displaced with her family from the Al-Daraj neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City, said she found no place to shelter except in Deir al-Balah, on farmland now crowded with tents. Nearby sewage and piles of waste surround the area, but there was no alternative.
She explained that she fled weeks ago as Israeli incursions, bombings, and strikes intensified in her neighbourhood.
“This has been Palestinian land since the beginning of history, and only now they recognise it — while we are being killed?” she asked bitterly.
“We cannot live in it; we are being killed and starved here. Why don’t they stop the killing and feed our children instead?”
