CNN spoke to some of the hundreds of Palestinians fleeing northern Gaza for the south on Saturday.
Crowds of people — women, children, the elderly and wounded — made their way down Salah al-Din street, carrying bags, food and water. Most were on foot. A few moved by donkey and cart.
Some said their journey would be more than 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) long.
Israeli tanks could be seen at the side of the road and at times the sound of gunfire sent people running, with parents separated from their children amid the chaos.
At one point, the evacuees put cardboard over blankets that appeared to cover bodies on the street.
Among the evacuees were those who had sought refuge at Al-Shifa hospital, including Gaza health ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qidra and journalist Ibrahim Shaqoura.
“The Israeli soldiers bombed the intensive care unit at Al-Shifa hospital, and they threatened us to bomb the lower floor, so we decided to leave,” Shaqoura told CNN.
“The hospital is not a hospital anymore. It is a military station. There were not people attacking them from there.”
A woman who was carrying her child recalled the moment when the school they were sheltering in, in Jabalya, collapsed.
“My daughter was killed, [and] my nephew was martyred,” Shirin Joudeh said.
“Three [other] girls and three women also lost their lives. I managed to pull this child out from under the rubble. All my children are barefoot. I grabbed them and we just ran away."
Um Muhammad Hamada, a mother from Sheikh Radwan, sat by the roadside with her three children and two bird cages.
The crack of gunfire made her flinch and her daughter cover her ears.
"These birds mean a lot to me. They are like spirits that God saved, just like we were saved," she said.
"I couldn't leave them behind."