As Israel’s navy ramped up its warnings for civilians to flee northern Gaza, many individuals there mentioned that doing so was not an possibility due to value — and that it was no assure of security.

The Israeli navy mentioned Saturday night time that it could intensify its already punishing bombardment of the besieged enclave forward of an anticipated floor invasion. In Arabic-language leaflets dropped over Gaza on Saturday, it reiterated requires individuals to maneuver south, warning that anybody who didn’t “could also be thought-about a associate in a terrorist group.”

However Amani Abu Odeh, who lives within the city of Jabalia in Gaza’s north, mentioned that the hazard of Israeli airstrikes on the street had pushed up the price of journey. Drivers had been now charging between $200 and $300 to take a household south, she mentioned. Earlier than the conflict, the identical journey value about $3 an individual.

“We will’t even afford to eat,” Ms. Abu Odeh mentioned. “We don’t have the cash to depart.” As a substitute, she and different members of her prolonged household have hunkered down collectively in a single residence.

Meals, water and different provides are in desperately quick provide in Gaza, the place officers say the well being system is on the point of collapse after Israel declared an entire siege of the already blockaded enclave almost two weeks in the past.

Greater than half of Gaza’s greater than two million residents have been displaced since Israel launched its retaliatory airstrike marketing campaign. And the leaflets dropped over Gaza calling for extra individuals to maneuver south drew condemnation from Francesca Albanese, the United Nations particular rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories.

Designating tons of of hundreds of Palestinian civilians who had been unwilling or unable to flee as accomplices in terrorism was a risk of collective punishment and will probably quantity to ethnic cleaning, she wrote on X, previously referred to as Twitter, on Saturday. She added that intentionally concentrating on civilians was a conflict crime.

In response to questions from The New York Occasions, the Israeli navy mentioned that it didn’t intend to think about those that haven’t evacuated south to be members of armed Palestinian teams, which it considers terrorist organizations. It mentioned in an announcement that it “treats civilians as such, and doesn’t goal them.” A spokesman for the Israeli overseas ministry additionally mentioned that there was no foundation for the suggestion that its evacuation warnings might quantity to ethnic cleaning of Palestinians.

Whilst Israel has advised Gazans to move south, airstrikes have continued to hit that a part of the enclave. And an Israeli navy spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, mentioned on Saturday night time that Israel would “deepen” assaults on Gaza total forward of the “subsequent phases” of the conflict — a reference to a extensively anticipated floor offensive.

That — coupled with the escalating humanitarian disaster throughout the enclave — is certainly one of a number of causes some households say they’re staying put within the north.

“I didn’t go to the south primarily as a result of I do know nobody there; the place am I to go?” mentioned Yasser Shaban, 57, a civil servant in Gaza Metropolis. “We’ll find yourself within the streets.”

Mr. Shaban mentioned a cousin took his household to the south quickly after airstrikes on Gaza Metropolis started within the hours after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7. However per week in the past, he mentioned, an Israeli airstrike hit the place the place they had been sheltering within the metropolis of Khan Younis, killing the cousin’s spouse and two daughters. The cousin returned to Gaza Metropolis along with his surviving members of the family — a wounded son and his sister — to be handled at Al Shifa Hospital.

“I heard of the brand new leaflets saying they may think about us members of Hamas if we don’t evacuate,” Mr. Shaban mentioned. “However I merely can’t go south.”

Abu Bakr Bashir and Ameera Harouda contributed reporting.