Palestinians flee Israeli assault as army issues full Gaza City evacuation order

GAZA CITY

People watch as leaflets dropped by the Israeli military, urging evacuation south to al-Mawasi, land in Gaza City on Sept. 9, 2025.

A constant stream of Palestinians fled in tractors, carts and overloaded vans down a coastal road in the central Gaza Strip, the latest mass displacement as Israel intensified its assault on the territory's main city.

The Israeli military urged a full evacuation of Gaza City Tuesday morning ahead of its planned expanded offensive in the northern city, where hundreds of thousands of people struggle under conditions of famine.

The announcement was the first warning for a full evacuation of the city in the current round of fighting. Previously, the military has warned specific sections of Gaza City to evacuate ahead of concentrated operations or strikes.

Those escaping the offensive on Gaza City left behind them a scene of utter devastation, where smoke from the aftermath of Israeli strikes wafted behind buildings that had already been reduced to rubble.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 1 million people live in Gaza City and its surroundings, the Palestinian territory's largest urban center which the Israeli military is gearing up to seize.

The army said that it would act with "great force" in the city.

"We were forcibly displaced to the southern Gaza Strip under intensified shelling," said Saeb al-Mobayed, who was fleeing Gaza City along the coastal road.

"Many buildings have been destroyed," he told AFP. "Mosques near areas sheltering displaced people were also targeted, forcing us to leave."

Israel has come under mounting international pressure to end its offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once in nearly two years of war.

Some of those forced into their latest move travelled on trucks and tractor-pulled trailers piled high with people and household furniture, while others had little choice but to push heavy carts by hand.

Ahmed Shamlakh, who had also been displaced from Gaza City, pleaded for an end to the war and for crossings into the Palestinian territory to be opened.

"Allow life to return to normal as it was before, it's enough," he said.

Israeli army leaflets rained down on Palestinians ordering them to evacuate.

"I ask Israel: Where are we supposed to go?" said 36-year-old Khaled Khuwaiter, who had already fled from Gaza City's Zeitun neighborhood.

"People who fled from Gaza City to the Al-Mawasi area... found no place to stay, no tents, no water, no food," he added.

"Bombing and killings are everywhere. We have only God, because the world watches our slaughter and does nothing."

Mirvat Abu Muammar, 30, said she had already fled once with her husband and three children and that they now had no basic supplies.

"Evacuation is humiliating," she said.