Fleeing Gaza City, pursued by IDF bombs and gunfire

“Everyone used to say Gaza’s beaches are the most beautiful in the world,” says Soliman Hijjy, his voice weary after a relentless 27-hour journey to southern Gaza.

- MAIRA BUTT

Along al-Rashid Street, which runs parallel to the Mediterranean, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing Gaza City as Israel ramps up its brutal military campaign. Beauty has given way to destruction and fear.

The only permitted evacuation route out of the city runs 14km down the coast of the strip. Images show exhausted crowds carrying their belongings in makeshift bundles.

What was once a 10-minute walking route lined with cafes, restaurants and houses has been reduced to rubble and takes hours to traverse due to overcrowding. The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) has warned that the road is “extremely congested”.

“Children were crying, everyone was sweating and feeling fear,” Qasem Jamil Qasem, a 23-year-old management student who took the route, told The Independent.

It took him and his family - including his 62-year-old father, 60-year-old mother, and his nephew’s three children aged six, four and one - 13 hours to reach Deir al-Balah in the scorching 35C heat.

Qasem has sustained injuries throughout Israel’s military campaign, including a bullet wound in his abdomen, leg injuries from perilous trips to aid distribution sites and the amputation of a finger.

But as the only able-bodied member of his family, he found himself carrying around 70kg of luggage, with each member of his family taking two heavily laden bags each.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), around 350,000 people have escaped Gaza City, but the United Nations (UN) estimates that the number is closer to 190,000 since August. Over 60,000 people were displaced in a period of 72 hours earlier this week.