The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders for neighborhoods in Gaza City on Friday as it pressed forward with its offensive in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip, delivering a painful choice to Palestinians about whether to stay or go.
The orders targeted eastern Gaza City, including several parts that the military had declared evacuation zones last week. The move suggested that some people had remained in their homes even after the Israeli military had told them to leave.
Since the two-month cease-fire between Israel and Hamas collapsed in March, Israel has issued a succession of orders across Gaza, covering roughly half of the territory. The orders have left Palestinians in the north — many of whom have been displaced multiple times and returned home when the truce came into effect — debating whether to stay in their neighborhoods despite the danger or to leave and yet again face the miserable conditions of displacement.
While the United Nations has said that over 390,000 people have been displaced in recent weeks, the exact number of people remaining in evacuation zones was unclear.
“We don’t want to leave,” said Ahmad al-Masri, 26, a resident of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza who has spurned evacuation orders for his town. “Where will we go? It’s so very tiring.”
In some parts of Gaza, the military has called on people to leave and later invaded by ground. In other areas, it has put out evacuation orders, but has not sent in infantry. At least some Palestinians who have disregarded evacuation orders said they would leave if Israeli tanks move into their neighborhoods.
“I’m dealing with the reality on the ground,” Mr. al-Masri said.
Ahmed al-Ejla, 30, a resident of a neighborhood that the military ordered evacuated on Friday, said he, his wife and their three children fled to western Gaza City after Israel carried out strikes by their home.
“We feel helpless,” he said, describing the challenge of finding a place to shelter.
Since March 18, the Israeli military has embarked on a major bombing campaign and seized territory in what Israeli officials have said was a bid to compel Hamas to release more hostages.
Adding to the uncertainty, Arab mediators and the United States have struggled to bridge gaps between Hamas and Israel, to restore the cease-fire and to bring about exchanges of hostages for Palestinian prisoners.
Over the course of the war, Palestinians have endured a marathon of hope and heartbreak as mediators have expressed optimism about talks only for a deal to remain elusive, or fall apart completely.
On Thursday, President Trump suggested that a new agreement could be in the offing. “We’re getting close to getting them back,” Mr. Trump told reporters at a meeting of his cabinet, referring to hostages.
The president did not offer specific details, and representatives for Hamas and the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel did not immediately return requests for comment.
The military said its recent campaign had dismantled weapons infrastructure and killed militants. On Thursday, the Israeli military said that a day earlier in Gaza City’s Shajaiye neighborhood it had killed a Hamas commander who had participated in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Hamas did not comment on the claim.
The Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency rescue service under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said that 23 people had been killed in strikes in Shajaiye on Wednesday, without distinguishing between civilians and combatants. Israel has said that Hamas embeds in civilian areas, though legal experts say that the military still has an obligation to protect civilians.
“The Israel Defense Forces is acting with great force in your areas to destroy the terrorist infrastructure,” Avichay Adraee, the Arabic-language spokesman for the military, said on Friday, announcing the evacuation orders for eastern Gaza City.
The Israeli offensive has included evacuation orders encompassing roughly half of the territory, according to a New York Times analysis of Israeli military maps. Satellite imagery also shows that the Israeli military is taking over Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza, with forces closing in from two directions.
More than 1,500 people in Gaza have been killed since the cease-fire fell apart, and more than 50,000 people have been killed since the start of the war, according to the Gaza health ministry. The ministry also does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its casualty counts. Doctors at hospitals have said many of those wounded and killed in recent weeks have been children.
The United Nations said Friday that Israel’s actions in Gaza increasingly threatened the ability of Palestinians to continue living in the territory. Since mid-March, Israel has issued 21 evacuation orders there and launched some 224 attacks on residential buildings and tents, Ravina Shamdasani, a spokeswoman for the U.N. human rights chief, Volker Türk, told reporters on Friday.
“The death, the destruction, the displacement, the denial of access to basic necessities within Gaza and the repeated suggestion that Gazans should leave the territory entirely raise real concerns as to the future viability of Palestinians as a group in Gaza,” she said.
Nick Cumming-Bruce contributed reporting.
Adam Rasgon is a reporter for The Times in Jerusalem, covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.
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