Israeli offensive bears down on Gaza, leaving fleeing Palestinians with few options

Subhi Muhammad Asfour came to northern Gaza in search of food, a home and hope. Instead, he and his family are hungry and terrified, as Israeli evacuation orders threaten to force them to move for a seventh time since the war began.

“I came to western Gaza looking for a place to put up a tent,” Asfour, 46, told NBC News in a telephone interview Friday, saying that transporting his family from the area, as the Israeli military has told Palestinian civilians to do, would cost $500 or more.

“I don’t have money,” he said.

Israel’s military is pushing ahead with a new operation to seize Gaza City that could displace hundreds of thousands of people and worsen the dire situation there. It launched intense strikes on the area this week after announcing it had begun the first stage of its planned assault.

Under threat of worsening violence, Asfour doesn’t know how he can take care of his wife, four children, sister and parents.

“I’m afraid for my children, but where can I go?” he said. “There’s no place and no safety.”

Seeking refuge, Asfour lives amid airstrikes and increasing deprivation, following Friday’s declaration of famine in northern Gaza, including Gaza City, by the world’s leading authority on hunger.