Gaza City residents say they will stay despite Israel's declaration of 'combat zone'

Thousands of Gaza City residents say they will stay despite Israel declaring the city a combat zone.  

Israel on Friday declared Gaza City a combat zone and said it would end daytime pauses in fighting to allow aid to get in.  

On Saturday, Palestinian health authorities, said the death toll across the Gaza Strip since the latest conflict began had risen to more than 63,000, with almost 160,000 people injured. 

But still, many residents are determined to stay. Iman Qassem lives in Gaza City since being displaced from Beit Hanoun: 

"Where are we going to go? If we want to leave, where are we going to go? You can see that all the areas have no space. There are people who were displaced yesterday and paid for transportation as much as 2,000 shekels ($601) and then they came back to find that their place has been taken. There is no space. Even if jets drop leaflets asking us to leave and we don't find a place, we will not leave. If they want to hit us, let them. We die everyday." 

Before the war, the city was home to 700,000 people but many fled as Israel targeted what it alleges is a Hamas stronghold with a still-operational network of tunnels.  

On Saturday, an official said Israel plans to stop airdrops over Gaza and limit the number of aid trucks into the enclave as it prepares to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people south.  

Gaza City resident Akram Mzini says he won't go:

"We will not leave because displacement is very difficult. We were displaced to the south before and displacement in the south is not simple and it is costly. We were displaced to Rafah, Deir al-Balah and Zawaida and life is very difficult. Life is difficult so we will stay in our home and whatever God wants will happen." 

The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that a mass evacuation of Gaza City cannot be done safely, given the widespread destruction of infrastructure and extreme shortages of food, water and medical care.  

The Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, 2023 when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel and abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians.