Residents are desperate to find safe hiding places as the Israeli military prepares for what is expected to be a ground offensive accompanied by relentless air strikes. The journey to the south is also fraught with risks.

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"Many Gazans have refused to leave their homes for the south, fearing a repeat of the “Nakba” or “catastrophe”, when many Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes during the 1948 war that accompanied Israel’s creation.

Some 700,000 Palestinians, half the Arab population of what was British-ruled Palestine, were dispossessed and displaced, many spilling into neighbouring Arab states where they or many of their descendants remain. Many still live in refugee camps."