'We are the walking dead' Displaced residents brace for further misery

Displaced repeatedly. Forced to live in tent camps or amid the ruins of their homes.

- Malak A Tantesh Gaza Lorenzo Tondo Jerusalem

Stricken by hunger and deprived of medical supplies. Now, 22 months into the war, about a million Palestinians are bracing for another catastrophe after the Israeli security cabinet's decision to take control of the entire Gaza Strip. Such an offensive would force them toward the south of the territory, and an uncertain future.

"Since this morning, after hearing the news of evacuation of Gaza City, I have been feeling anxious and afraid," said Umm Ibrahim Banat, 55, a mother from northern Gaza who has already been displaced four times.

"Where will we go with the children and the elderly? I swear we are exhausted from displacement, starvation, and being driven from one place to another. Now we are the walking dead."

Following a 10-hour overnight meeting, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced yesterday that his security cabinet had approved a plan to take over Gaza City, marking a further escalation of Israel's offensive that has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians.