Palestinian families were seen travelling through central Gaza on Sunday after the Israeli army issued evacuation orders for Gaza City.

People crammed into cars, trucks, or donkey-pulled carts with mattresses, chairs, and clothes bundled hastily in blankets as children and parents clung to their belongings.

The convoys moved slowly down Rashid Road next to Wadi Gaza, a stream of displacement stretching southward toward an already overburdened and densely populated part of the Strip.

Some, however, found no refuge. With the south overflowing, families doubled back, returning reluctantly to Gaza City.

“Every time we move to a place, we get displaced from it. There’s no safe place in Gaza,” said Shireen Al-Lada’, a displaced woman from east Gaza City.

“Sadly, I am compelled to repeat this experience after our house was destroyed. The last thing we expected is for them to enter west of the Zeitoun (neighborhood). It’s not easy but we have to, for the safety of our young ones," she added.

Along the coastline, the stream of displaced families moved against a backdrop of destruction, with smoke billowing from nearby strikes.

Production by Suzanne Lowry