Tens of thousands of people are streaming into the centre of Gaza after fresh waves of bombardment and ground operations forced families from Gaza City to flee yet again. Camps in Maghazi, Nuseirat and Bureij, already strained beyond capacity, are now overwhelmed by the influx of displaced families seeking shelter wherever it can be found. Streets, courtyards and ruins have become temporary refuges as people struggle to survive under the open sky.

Those arriving carry little more than plastic bags of clothing or jugs of water, while their children trail beside them through dust and rubble. Makeshift tents stitched together from scraps of plastic and wood dot the camps, but shade and clean water remain scarce. “We escaped the bombing, but now we face hunger and thirst,” said one father, describing the impossible choices confronting displaced families. With health services shattered and food distribution sporadic, the risk of disease, malnutrition and dehydration is rising sharply.

Aid groups warn that central Gaza has no infrastructure to cope with such numbers. Wells are polluted, clinics are improvised and chronically ill patients have nowhere to turn. Doctors who fled the north are struggling to provide even the most basic care. In the searing late-September heat, children and the elderly are collapsing from exhaustion. Yet families insist they cannot return north, and the south offers no relief. For many, central Gaza has become a reluctant sanctuary, fragile and unsafe, but the only place left to endure.