At first Youssef Mehna thought Israeli bombardment in Gaza would quickly be over. Then he was wounded, his house was destroyed, and he was forced to survive “25 days without anything”, AFP reports.

So like thousands of others, Mehna finally fled north Gaza for the south.

Perched on trucks, crammed into cars, pulled by donkeys on carts, and on foot, tens of thousands of Palestinians are fleeing Israeli army strikes on the territory squeezed between Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean.

At the Bani Suheila crossroads in Khan Yunis, on the immense Salah Al-Din road that threads Gaza top to bottom, the processions are growing still.

People fleeing Gaza City are joined by those leaving Khan Yunis heading further south, towards Rafah, the last city before Egypt.

Mehna left the Jabalia refugee camp at seven in the morning, in the north of Gaza City, also hoping to reach Rafah. But his journey finished in Khan Yunis, after eight hours of travel covering only 25 kilometres.

“I already paid 500 shekels ($130) to come from Jabalia and so I have nothing more to carry on to Rafah,” he said with a drawn face, surrounded by his six children.