Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been leaving Gaza City in the last 24 hours to escape heavy Israeli bombardment and the start of the ground invasion.

Large parts of the city, which is plagued by hunger, have already been leveled by previous operations and bombings by the Israeli army. The attacks have resulted in hundreds of dead and wounded, with the latter being transferred to the few remaining functioning hospitals.

In the meantime, the exit from the city is being carried out by whatever means are available to everyone. Crammed into cars and trucks, some even on foot, exhausted Palestinians – most of whom have already been displaced multiple times within the enclave – are leaving their city again, forced by Israeli orders to head to the safer south.

For Palestinians, the exodus from Gaza City recalls one of the most painful moments in their history: the mass displacement of 1948, after the war, known in Arabic as the Nakba, when some 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their land during the military conflicts following the creation of the state of Israel.

The Israeli army announced on Tuesday that it had begun the planned his business in Gaza City, which until recently was estimated to have been home to up to a million people. It is estimated that more than 300,000 Palestinians have already fled the area in recent weeks.

Many of them had already been expelled from towns and villages in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave. These areas have now been completely razed by Israel. Palestinians now fear that Gaza City will suffer a similar fate, as part of a plan outlined by hardline Israeli politicians to force them to move permanently to the south of the enclave.

Palestinians trying to escape are currently moving along the main coastal road, Rashid. Major news agencies are broadcasting images of caravans of people being evacuated en masse, against a backdrop of smoke and rubble.

Those who want to leave Gaza City say it is not easy. Alaa al-Jabri, an art professor, did not want to be displaced from his land again. But he now feels it is too dangerous to stay in Gaza City as the fighting escalates.

The cost is beyond imagination, says Jabri, who is trying to find an apartment or even a tent space in the South. All the trucks that can take us out of the city are already closed .

Said, a street vendor, says that although Gaza City is now scary and his neighborhood has been hit by airstrikes, he has no intention of leaving.

It's expensive and there's no transportation, while the safe areas we're told to go to are constantly being bombed, he said. We'd rather stay in this bombed-out house than be out on the street with a tent.