What does the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza look like as the Israel-Hamas war continues

The displacement has affected the majority of Palestinians in Gaza who live in the middle of the year-long war between Israel and Hamas. The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, an international non-governmental organization, put the number of internally displaced persons (IDP) at 1.9 million in the Gaza Strip.

Among those who are expelled, latest photos a post by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on X, previously on Twitter, shows hundreds of civilians lined up together, holding their little belongings and leaving the Jabalia refugee camp following the IDF's instructions.

“We gathered since 10 in the morning and they all left. There were people injured,” Youssef Zaid told CBC independent videographer Mohamed El Saife. “People were scared. It was very scary.” Zaid said he was among the people forced out of Jabalia shown in one of the IDF photos.

For the past year, Palestinians in Gaza have been moving, from north to south, following the orders of the IDF. Most of the nearly two million IDPs in Gaza, estimated by international organizations, including the United Nations, hope to be able to return home, but as the war continues, that hope is diminishing.

Sitting in his uncle's house in Khan Younis, south of Gaza, Zaid said that on October 21, he and his family, along with hundreds of other civilians, were ordered to head to the center of Jabalia and prepare to leave. The message was sent through leaflets and drones equipped with microphones.

Zaid and his wife and six children were sheltered in the school, but as the war intensified in the north, they were asked to move to the south again.

“I swear we were afraid…we don't know what will happen,” he said.

At this point, he said the civilians were surrounded on all sides by tanks and snipers. Everyone was asked to hold up their Palestinian identity card, a white paper in their hand, face forward and continue walking.

“Men are afraid to speak or talk about anything, this whole situation is frightening,” said Zaid.

For the next five hours, the men were separated from the women and children, made to stand in line with the rest of the group and taken five by five to the checkpoint, where IDF soldiers were searching them along with their belongings.

Holding up a photo on his phone, Zaid said it was the “most difficult situation” of all the releases because he was separated from his family.

In a statement to CBC News, the IDF said such evacuations were carried out “to protect civilians.”

While the Israeli military demanded the evacuation of civilians from the combat zones, it said that the military will not stop operations in the area “if they identify the activities of a terrorist organization that threatens the security of Israel.”

The IDF said that any people suspected of terrorist acts are “arrested and interrogated.” Those found not involved in suspicious activities are released. In some cases, the detainees are required to take off their clothes to check if there are any hidden explosives or other weapons,” said the statement. After the search, their clothes are returned.

Ivana Hajzmanova, head of global monitoring at the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center in Switzerland, said that although it is difficult to calculate the number, the center estimates that Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced at least “ten times” in the past year.

“The toll of this war is very high,” he said. “For some, migration has been a necessity in Palestine for decades now – grandparents, parents, children who are constantly displaced by conflict and violence in the area.”

Hajzmanova said that even after leaving their cities, Palestinians face another issue: finding a safe haven. Most of the residents are currently “less than 20 percent of the space in Gaza,” he said. “Most of the area has been placed under evacuation orders.”

Rehab Khalil, 45, was also among the hundreds of people in the IDF photo. She said she left with her 9 children after her husband struggled to get dialysis and died at the beginning of the war.

“We felt scared,” he said. “My children were falling down because of fear.”

Khalil said he did not have time to travel with anything but a small bag of goods. Now in the middle of Gaza, he said he does not know where he will go, but he still hopes that one day he will return home.

“And God willing, we will return home. What happened to us is not right,” he said.