Smoke rises from an Israeli strike, as displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza as a consequence of an Israeli navy operation, transfer southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, within the central Gaza Strip on September 14, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Palestinian households streamed out of Gaza City on Sunday (September 14, 2025), some crammed into pick-up vans, others on foot, as Israeli forces pressed their assault on the territory’s predominant city centre.
Parents carried their youngsters whereas the aged hobbled alongside, an AFP journalist reported.
A person in a wheelchair and one other on crutches had been among the many lengthy line of individuals heading south under Israeli navy orders.
The navy has issued a number of evacuation warnings for Gaza City, however many residents have informed AFP they’ve nowhere else to go, noting that Israel has repeatedly struck the world within the south the place it has urged folks to maneuver.
The scenes of mass flight from Gaza City got here as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived in Israel in a present of help, regardless of an Israeli strike in Qatar this week.
The Israeli navy’s Arabic-language spokesman, Avichay Adraee, issued on Sunday a warning to these in Gaza’s port space and Al-Rimal neighbourhood to evacuate instantly to a “humanitarian zone” within the south, the place Gazans say there isn’t any more room to pitch tents.
He had on Saturday stated greater than 250,000 Gaza City residents had already fled, whereas Gaza’s civil defence company stated the determine was nearer to 68,000.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas imply AFP is unable to independently confirm the main points supplied by the civil defence company or the Israeli navy.
Panic and excessive concern’
Prior to the newest assault, the United Nations had estimated that round one million folks lived in and across the metropolis, the place it formally declared famine final month.
AFP footage confirmed exhausted households shifting alongside the coastal street close to Nuseirat south of Gaza City, with their belongings stacked excessive in autos.
In town itself, “the bombardment hasn’t stopped since dawn,” stated Umm Alaa Shaaban, 45, a resident of Tal al-Hawa district in Gaza City’s southwest.
“We haven’t slept all night… The sounds of shelling and explosions have not stopped until now,” she informed AFP.
According to Shaaban, the Israeli air pressure “bombed many houses… we were terribly afraid — my children screamed in terror.
“We do not know the place to go. The bombardment is all over the place.”
Mohammed Ghazal, 32, who fled from Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighbourhood, also said the strikes were relentless.
“We live in a state of panic and excessive concern. The shelling hasn’t stopped since daybreak, the explosions are intense and the capturing steady,” he told AFP.
“Israeli forces are utilizing terrifying strategies and escalating the bombardment to frighten us and pressure us to flee south.”
In recent days, the Israeli military has targeted several high-rise buildings in Gaza City, saying they were being used by Hamas militants.
On Sunday, it said it had struck another high-rise where Hamas had set up “statement posts to watch the situation of… troops within the space”.
AFP also saw an Israeli leaflet dropped on residents, telling them they were in a “harmful fight zone” — a message the military has repeated for weeks.
Across the the Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes killed 23 people since dawn Sunday, according to the Gaza civil defence agency.
Published – September 14, 2025 10:17 pm IST