Final goodbye: MEE reporters on the pain of being forced out of Gaza City

“Sell your furniture,” Youssef advises Palestinian journalist Ahmed Dremly, as he packs his belongings to flee Gaza City.

“The bed in your room, the wardrobe, the bookcase - sell them all,” he insists.

Dremly, one of Middle East Eye’s main contributors in Gaza City throughout the Israeli genocide, responds bitterly: “Who would buy them?”

Youssef, his friend, replies: “Sell them as firewood.”

“So I should smash the bed my mother used to sleep on - my room, my memories - and sell it all as firewood?” Dremly asks again.

“Better that than having it buried under the rubble,” Youssef says, his voice trailing off as he disappears into the distance.

It’s a conversation straight out of a dystopian, apocalyptic novel - but one that most of Gaza City’s one million residents have been forced to have in recent days.

In mid-August, Israel launched an intensified bombing campaign on the city, ahead of a ground invasion that began earlier this month. 

In Gaza, families are running from death to more death

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The stated aim appears to be the depopulation - or, as many have described it, the ethnic cleansing - of the city, the heart of the Gaza Strip, before fully occupying it.

To achieve this, Israeli forces have deployed dozens of explosive-laden robots capable of levelling entire residential blocks in a single remote detonation. Meanwhile, scores of high-rise buildings sheltering thousands of civilians have already been flattened by air strikes. 

The goal is to force as many people as possible to flee the city towards southern Gaza.

Estimates vary on how many have already fled. Palestinian officials say around 300,000, while Israel claims the number is closer to 600,000.

‘Will they kill whoever they find?’

Regardless of the figures, almost everyone in Gaza City has been forced to at least plan their departure, whether voluntarily now or under force when Israeli troops eventually storm the city.

Almost everyone in the city prefers to stay - most cannot afford the cost of transportation, have nowhere to stay in the south and fear that displacement this time could mean never seeing their homes again.

This time, Israel appears adamant about completely wiping the city out, many say. 

MEE reporters in the city have been among hundreds of thousands of people grappling with the tough choice: stay in your home and potentially die, or flee south with the possibility of never returning. 

'I look at the walls of my house, even the lamp, and it breaks my heart, the little details'

- Ahmed Dremly, Palestinian journalist

“We prepared our bags and our clothes, but it’s very hard to decide what to take and what to leave behind,” Dremly said. 

“I look at the walls of my house, even the lamp, and it breaks my heart, the little details,” he added. 

“It feels strange to think I won’t have a house. This thought will haunt you no matter where you go. It’s not easy.”

Earlier in the war, Dremly never left Gaza City, where he lived all his life. 

When Israeli forces invaded the city, he moved from one area to another until a short-lived ceasefire in January brought some respite. 

All until the renewed invasion. 

“We went to al-Sahaba area, and when they stormed it, to Tal al-Hawa, and when they got there, we went to al-Jalaa,” he recalled. 

“This time, will they invade all of Gaza City at once, send all their brigades in, or will they go area by area, killing whoever they find? Will they kill anyone they come across? I don’t know.”

The final goodbye

Award-winning journalist Maha Hussaini, MEE’s lead correspondent in Gaza City, spent days grappling with an impossible decision.

As Israeli tanks and explosive-laden robots edged closer to her home in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood last week, she relocated to another part of the city. 

But she refused to flee south, having already endured extremely difficult conditions there during the first year of the war.

“The first time we were displaced, we thought it would only last hours or a few days, and we’d go back home. It actually lasted about a year and a half,” she said.

“But at the moment of that displacement, it didn’t feel as terrible because we thought we would leave and then return.

“This time, we’re aware that we’re leaving and not coming back, that we’re saying goodbye to Gaza’s streets as we walk them, and bidding the neighbourhoods farewell.”

Hussaini said she had postponed the decision to leave for as long as possible, knowing it would likely be permanent.

“The last time you leave the house and shut the door - that’s the last time you’ll close that door,” she said.

“You won’t come back to see it again. It’s terribly hard. I’m living in denial, especially now that everyone around me has left and the city is emptying.”

Despite the growing danger, she remained determined to stay in Gaza City “until the last gasp”.

“We don’t know what that last gasp is, or how long it will be. But yes, we always say we’ll stay until the point where it’s impossible to stay - and then we’ll go,” she said.

“Honestly, I don’t know how I’ll leave or where to go. There’s literally no place left in the city, and the area they’re trying to confine us to is very small.”

'Sooner or later, I’ll have to leave. It’s out of my hands. A day will come - against my will - when I’ll have to leave Gaza'

- Maha Hussaini, Palestinian journalist

Adding to her anguish is the mass exodus she’s witnessed over recent days.

“The streets are so empty - when you walk around, it doesn’t feel like Gaza anymore,” she said.

“Gaza used to be lively and full of life. Now, you barely see anyone.”

Still, Hussaini recognised that delaying the inevitable would not stop it from happening.

“I just know, sooner or later, I’ll have to leave. It’s out of my hands. No matter how much I try to prolong this period, a day will come - against my will - when I’ll have to leave Gaza.

“As you know, one tries as much as possible to extend the time, to stay longer in Gaza, to drink it all in.”

On Wednesday, just days after this interview, Hussaini was finally forced to flee south, having run out of safe places to stay in Gaza City.