As the Israeli military has expanded its offensive in the Gaza Strip, taking control of more territory in parts of the south and north and issuing new evacuation orders, many people who had only recently returned to their homes have been forcibly displaced once again.
Israel’s drive into the southern city of Rafah pushed thousands of families from the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, near the border with Egypt, to flee on foot on Sunday before Israeli troops completely encircled the area by the afternoon.
For many, the new round of mass displacement brought back painful memories of the earlier days of the war in Gaza. Residents of Tal al-Sultan and nearby areas said they had to walk on a specific route amid bombardment, carrying very few belongings, during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during daytime.
Most of those who fled on Sunday walked several miles north to the city of Khan Younis, where they were left without shelter because of a severe shortage of basic necessities and tents, the Rafah local government, which includes Tal al-Sultan, said in a statement.
The Israeli military renewed its offensive in Gaza last week after an impasse in talks to extend a fragile, temporary cease-fire with Hamas that went into effect in mid-January. That truce was intended to be the first of three phases leading to the end of a war that began with the Hamas-led assault on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but the second phrase has been delayed indefinitely.
Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that 61 people were killed in Israeli bombardments over the past day, a day after it said the death toll in the enclave had surpassed 50,000 since the war began almost 18 months ago. The ministry’s figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.
The Israeli military said in a statement on Sunday that its troops had killed several fighters in Tal al-Sultan and raided a site it said was used as a Hamas command and control center. It did not provide evidence of its claims, which could not be independently verified.
On Monday, Al Jazeera reported that Hussam Shabat, a journalist who contributed to its coverage of the war, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on his car in northern Gaza. At least 208 journalists have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza government press office. The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.
The Palestinian civil defense in Gaza said on Sunday that Israel’s siege of Tal al-Sultan had endangered the lives of nearly 50,000 people living there, with some either unable or unwilling to flee. Some residents, after months of repeated displacement, had only recently been able to return to their homes, or what was left of them, during the short-lived cease-fire.
“We left with the clothes on our backs under fire and bombardment,” said Mustafa Jabr, 36, after walking for nearly six hours along a sandy route with his family from their home in Tal al-Sultan on Sunday morning. “It was a very surprising and intense attack,” he said from a friend’s house in southern Khan Younis, where the family was now sheltering.
Mr. Jabr said that before encircling the neighborhood, Israeli vehicles had been regularly patrolling the area around the Philadelphi Corridor, a narrow strip of Gaza along the border with Egypt and one of the main sticking points in the cease-fire talks. But at dawn on Sunday, residents were jolted up by “sudden bombardment,” before fliers ordering people to evacuate along a specified route began raining down, he said.
“So we headed north under a hail of tank shelling and quadcopter fire that wounded dozens,” said Mr. Jabr. “Many old people were abandoned along the route because they were too weak to keep walking on the sand,” he said, adding, “The scenes I saw on the way were horrific, there were so many children and old people and disabled people.”
Mr. Jabr’s family was now among an increasing number of families in Gaza who were once again wondering when they would be able to return to their homes.
Ahmad and Faten al-Sayyed also fled on Sunday, walking with their four children to a relative’s tent in western Khan Younis. They had recently returned to their damaged home in Rafah after nine months of sheltering in a tent in Khan Younis, only to find themselves back in another tent less than a month later.
“I thought the second phase of negotiations would begin while we were back in our home in Rafah,” said Mr. al-Sayyed.
Although occasional gunfire was heard in Rafah in recent days, Mr. al-Sayyed said that he was shocked when Israeli troops advanced into the area. “We never imagined it would escalate into a full siege and military operation,” he said. “
As soon as the evacuation orders were issued, Mr. al-Sayyed told his children to pack two outfits each in their school bags.
Some on the route were carrying terrified, crying children, while others clutched whatever belongings they could. Most of the adults, observing Ramadan, neither ate nor drank anything along the way.
The elderly and ill, some in wheelchairs, struggled to keep up as drones “followed us, hovering above, moving right and left, watching every step,” said Mr. al-Sayyed.
The crowd found itself trapped for nearly an hour and a half after Israeli forces blocked the road, while people pleaded with the Red Cross to get them to safety.
“We could hear bulldozers and occasional gunfire,” Mr. al-Sayyed recalled. “Later, I saw how they had cleared paths for people to pass through, built mounds of sand around the area, set up fences and cameras, and positioned soldiers on top of those sand barriers,” he added, referring to Israeli troops.
They were then instructed to continue walking toward a United Nations warehouse, where an Israeli tank stopped them again and troops told everyone to sit on the ground.
“After nearly 20 minutes, the soldiers asked the women and children to sit on the right side of the street, while the men were ordered to sit on the left side,” said Mr. al-Sayyed. “People were terrified and their eyes were filled with fear,” he said, adding: “Mothers were crying for their grown sons, not wanting to be separated from them, fearing that they would be killed or arrested.”
Eventually, it was Mr. al-Sayyed’s turn to be searched by the soldiers. He said he was ordered to strip down and was made to remain seated, blindfolded, for more than an hour. He was then released and caught up with his wife and children.
“All I could hear was crying, and all I could see were scared faces,” said Ms. al-Sayyed.
“My son Mohammed was very terrified when he saw a dead boy,” she added. “He just collapsed onto the sand, screaming in a completely unhinged way, and all I could do was cry along with him.”
Iyad Abuheweila contributed reporting from Cairo.
