Palestinians in Gaza City described scenes of panic on Tuesday as Israel launched a new ground operation, sending in troops and tanks while pounding the area with heavy airstrikes.
The city streets were filled with people who could not find anywhere to shelter, witnesses told The New York Times. Others sought safety in buildings that were filled with smoke from nearby Israeli strikes or fires.
Nesreen Joudeh said in a telephone interview that she was sheltering with her husband and four children in an apartment whose heavily cracked walls seemed to be crumbling around them. She said she was afraid they would all soon die.
“With every single strike, pieces of concrete fall on our heads and I scream all the time,” said Ms. Joudeh, 40.
Montaser Bahja, a former schoolteacher, said he was also hiding from the Israeli assault in an apartment near the Mediterranean coast. He said an intense bombardment began overnight, and the strikes were making the ground shake beneath his building.
“We are all terrified,” he said. “Death would be more merciful than what we’re living through.”
By Tuesday, the Israeli military said roughly half a million people remained in Gaza City after 350,000 had heeded evacuation orders and fled, compounding a humanitarian disaster in the territory where most people have been displaced multiple times and hunger is rampant after nearly two years of war.
Gaza’s health officials said ambulance and emergency workers were unable to reach some of the injured people stranded on streets or trapped under rubble from Israeli strikes.
As the ground operation began on Tuesday, the Israeli military told anyone who remained in Gaza City to leave as quickly as possible. But many said they simply could not afford to do so.
“I don’t have anywhere to go in southern Gaza, no house, no tent, no car in which to travel,” said Mr. Bahja. “They’re not fighting Hamas. They’re fighting all of us civilians.”
Israel has said it is targeting Gaza City because it is one of the last remaining strongholds of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that led the 2023 attack on Israel, which set off the war in Gaza.
Ms. Joudeh said her family also could not afford to pay for transportation out of the city, the cost of which reached about $1,000 or more in recent days. They cannot leave on foot, she added, because her husband suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure. One of her sons was also injured while trying to get flour at an aid distribution site, she said.
She said she felt as if her family, and her city, were at the end of their rope.
“They broke us,” she said, referring to Israel. “What else will they do to us?”
Even if her family did survive the offensive, she said she was worried about how to feed them. She had only four pounds of flour and a few canned goods left at home, and feared there may not be an opportunity to get more aid anytime soon.
“If we get surrounded by the army, we will have to survive on this,” she said. But if the army were to advance toward her neighborhood, she said, “That is the end for us.”
Liam Stack is a Times reporter who covers the culture and politics of the New York City region.
Aaron Boxerman is a Times reporter covering Israel and Gaza. He is based in Jerusalem.
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