A synthesized male voice with a metallic timbre rattled off numbers in Arabic at the other end of the line. Each number corresponded to a specific area of the Gaza Strip designated for evacuation. In recent days, several residents received "warning calls" from the Israeli army, said 21-year-old English literature student Afaf Ahmed, who shared on Instagram a video of the phone call that reached her on December 2. The day before, just after the end of the truce, Israeli fighter jets had dropped leaflets bearing a QR code. The QR code gave access to a map of the Gaza Strip divided into hundreds of small cantons, all identified by numbers.

"They’ll call you late night while you’re sleeping asking you to move. You either die at home under their bombs, die escaping their bombs or freeze & starve to death outside with your loved ones. WHERE do they want us to move to!?" writes Ahmed. The young woman fled her home in Gaza City at the start of the war. She subsequently left Khan Yunis, the large town in the South where she was taking refuge, after the call from the army. Contacted by Le Monde, she apologized: She no longer had "the energy to answer interviews."

According to the United Nations, over 80% of Gazans have been forcibly displaced since the start of the war, trapped within the enclave besieged by Israel. Some have moved back and forth to their own neighborhoods depending on the bombings. On October 13, the Israeli army ordered the residents of the northern part of the enclave to move to the center and the South, causing an exodus amid humanitarian chaos. Since the beginning of December, the military has called for further evacuation of large areas in the center and Khan Yunis – around 22% of the territory. Tens of thousands of Gazans then took to the road again, this time toward the Palestinian city of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. Videos showed long lines of families on foot with backpacks and small suitcases, advancing in the rain along a roadway where a few carts overloaded with mattresses and a few cars were also circulating. This exodus is set to intensify in the coming days as the Israeli army advances into Khan Yunis.

In a voice message sent to Le Monde on WhatsApp, Rahaf Shamaly, a 20-year-old artist, took stock of the situation, her voice noticeably tired. First, she had fled her home in Rimal, Gaza City, to take refuge in the hospital. Then the hospital was evacuated and she and her family ended up in the attic of friends in Qarara, a district of Khan Yunis. In early December, the Israeli army ordered the evacuation of the area. "At first, I didn't believe it. Then we experienced a terrible night of bombing. Early in the morning, from 4 am to 5:30 am, we were under fire: missiles, hitting everywhere, one after the other, continuously." The family grabbed their belongings and left in a panic, not knowing where they would go. As they left, bombs were still raining down. She arrived in Rafah and slept on the ground for two nights in a makeshift shelter. Shamaly has since managed to find an apartment "with exorbitant rent." "Where will we go next? Yesterday, we were joking with the family and suddenly I burst into tears. I want my bed back, my sheets. I miss my life."

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