Elham Shamali, like hundreds of thousands of Gaza City residents, faces an agonizing choice. She can flee with her family — again — to suffer the uncertainties and indignities of displacement, or risk defying Israel’s evacuation orders ahead of what is expected to be a full-scale assault on Gaza’s largest city.

Ms. Shamali, 47, fled her home in the city once before during the war that began nearly two years ago, but she returned when the southern part of Gaza began to feel too dangerous.

This time, she said her family would move to a different Gaza City neighborhood that she thought might fare better in an Israeli offensive, but insisted they would not leave the area altogether.

“We know if we leave, we will never return,” said Ms. Shamali, who was a university professor before the war. Many of her neighbors felt the same way. In recent days, she said, she had seen them prying valuable construction materials off their homes before heading south.

“I saw people carrying window frames and doors,” she said. “Stuff that suggests they know they won’t be back.”