On 14 September 2025, I woke up early to the sound of trucks honking at 7 am.

I stood and looked out from my bedroom window, which overlooks the al-Rimal neighborhood in Gaza City.

I saw a number of people carrying what was left of their belongings and heading south.

Some were carrying tattered cloth bags. Others were carrying broken solar panels.

Shop owners were emptying what remained of their wares, afraid of losing them in case their stores were destroyed.

For half an hour, I stood at my window, meditating on the sight of my street and the remaining buildings.

Then I saw my friend Ibrahim al-Sosi, 28, walking down the street.

I called out. “Good morning!”

“What’s up, Ali,” he replied. “Are you guys going to the south?”

“Never – I’d rather go to heaven than go to the south. The last time my family and I were forced to go south, it wasn’t our choice,” I told him, reminding him of when the Israeli troops stormed our house on 6 February 2024 in Gaza and ordered my family and I to go south before detonating our home…..more