I soon face the possibility of never being able to return to Gaza City.
As the Israeli army launches the first phase of its latest military operation in Gaza City — aimed at fully occupying the area and displacing its roughly 1 million residents to the south — the city has descended into unending hell. Night after night, relentless and terrifying explosions rob us of sleep. Entire neighborhoods are being invaded and demolished, forcing families to flee toward an uncertain fate, while bloody massacres have become a grim part of daily life.
For a moment, these cruel scenes harken back to the first months of the war, when Israeli forces, for the first time, compelled residents of the city to flee south under threat of ground invasion. The sky then looked the same as it does now — gray and thick with billowing smoke, signaling imminent danger. The people’s faces reflected the same unbearable anxiety and fear, only now the worry is sharper: We fear that this time we may be forced to leave Gaza City forever, without ever being allowed to return.
The Israeli forces began their operation by intensifying military pressure along multiple axes in the north, east, and south of the city, including neighborhoods such as Al-Zaitoun, Tel al-Hawa, Al-Sabra, and Sheikh Radwan, with the seeming aim of fully encircling the city and confining its residents to a specific area to compel them to move southward.
These neighborhoods have witnessed heavy shelling from artillery and airstrikes, as well as the destruction of entire residential blocks by Israeli robots carrying tons of explosives, in addition to intense gunfire from Israeli tanks and drones. This has caused a large wave of displacement of residents toward the central and western parts of the city, which are already overcrowded and still considered dangerous war zones by the Israeli military. The threat of invasion looms at any moment.
The forced displacement has further exacerbated the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, who are already drained mentally, physically, emotionally, and financially after enduring 23 months of ongoing genocide. Most families in Gaza City had been displaced to the south for more than 15 months and were only able to return during the ceasefire in January 2025.
