ABSAN Al-KABIRA, Gaza — Sitting in a makeshift shelter set up in a school playground, Ramez Abu Daqqa pondered two questions: Was any place in Gaza safe? And how fast could he move his ailing father when Israeli bombs again start coming down?

These were questions Abu Daqqa, 47, had been happy to forget about since January, when Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire. In the 14 months of fighting before it came into place, successive Israeli evacuation orders had forced Abu Daqqa and his family — including his wife, their six kids, his sister and his father — to flee five times.

The sixth time happened on Tuesday, when the Israeli military restarted an all-out offensive on the enclave, ending the few months of relative peace Abu Daqqa had enjoyed. He now winced at the memory of pushing his father — 69-year-old Abd Rabbo Abu Daqqa, who has Parkinson’s disease and cannot walk on his own — through the rubble-strewn streets in a dilapidated wheelchair as dawn broke on Tuesday.

“The sound of the gunfire was deafening, like hell itself was in the sky. It was a real nightmare. And now it seems like it’s coming back again,” Abu Daqqa said.

“I never thought the ceasefire would collapse so quickly.”

That was a common thought in this shelter in southeast Gaza on Wednesday, as Israel continued its campaign in the enclave, which has so far killed 436 people and injured hundreds of others since early Tuesday, according to Palestinian health authorities. The figures do not distinguish between fighters and civilians, but rights groups said 94 women and 183 children were among the dead.

The United Nations said one of its workers was killed and others injured in an explosion that hit a building housing U.N. personnel, adding that the circumstances of the incident remain unclear. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza blamed the Israeli military, which denied targeting the compound.

The Israeli military, which insists its attacks over the last two days targeted Hamas, said on Wednesday that it deployed troops in the enclave in the last 24 hours so as to create a buffer zone dividing Gaza’s north from its southern region. Soldiers also entered the Netzarim Corridor, which runs roughly four miles and bisects the enclave just south of Gaza City.

The attacks have all but shattered the ceasefire, which began on Jan. 19 and had given Abu Daqqa and Gaza’s some 2 million residents a modicum of peace. Aid, which was scarce during the war, surged into the enclave before Israel cut it off two weeks ago. Abu Daqqa’s home in Khuzaa, less than a mile from the border with Israel, was destroyed in the fighting, but the family — like hundreds of thousands of others — nevertheless returned and set up a tent near the wreckage.

“We cleared the debris and cleaned up the space, so we could have some privacy and comfort for Ramadan near our destroyed home,” he said. “Now things are going wrong again.”

The war in Gaza began after Hamas’ operation on Oct. 7, 2023, which saw the group’s operatives sweep into southern Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people, some two-thirds of them civilians, and kidnapping about 250 others. Israel retaliated with a ferocious campaign that has so far killed more than 49,500, according to Palestinian health authorities; it has also displaced millions of Gaza residents and left wide swaths of the enclave in ruins.

Fifty-nine hostages are still held by Hamas, and fewer than half are thought to be still alive. Most of the others were released in two ceasefire deals.

The January agreement stipulated that the first phase of the ceasefire would see the release of hostages in exchange for Palestinian detainees, and would be accompanied by negotiations for a more permanent ceasefire, a full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza and an end to the war.

But those negotiations have yet to begin. Instead, Israel insisted — with U.S. backing — on extending the first phase and adding more hostage releases but without committing to negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government also said it would intensify military pressure on Hamas until it relents.

“The evacuation of the population from combat zones will resume, and what follows will be far more severe—you will pay the full price,” said Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in a video address on Wednesday.

“Return the hostages and remove Hamas — the alternative is total devastation.”

Hamas officials have repeatedly said that no new agreements are necessary and that Israel should adhere to the terms outlined in the original ceasefire deal.

When Israel’s offensive began at 2 a.m. on Tuesday, the Abu Daqqa family were having Suhoor, the meal before daybreak in Ramadan. They finished the food quickly, then left Khuzaa at dawn for the school in Absan Al-Kabira, less than two miles away.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders calling on residents to leave areas on Gaza’s eastern edge to the west — including Absan Al-Kabira; that meant Abu Daqqa’s family would have to move yet again.

“You can’t imagine how traumatic evacuation can be. Being away from home, any place but your own, feels like losing your dignity. We’re just ordinary people trying to live in peace — do our farming, raise our children, and live with dignity like everyone else,” Abu Daqqa said. And this time they would have to do it while fasting, he added.

Beside him was Abu Daqqa’s sister, 35-year-old Ayat Abu Daqqa, who worried about where they would stay. She recalled the horrifying conditions when the family moved to Rafah, a city in southern Gaza that was crowded with more than a million displaced during the war.

“Every decision we make revolves around our father. Moving him from place to place, with a broken wheelchair, destroyed roads, the high cost of transportation — it’s difficult on all of us,” she said.

Already, the area in front of the school was snarled with donkey carts loaded with people’s belongings, cooking gas cylinders, jugs of drinking water, mattresses and tarps. Some of the men had managed to enter their homes in the designated firing zone to grab whatever extra supplies they could, while women were searching for khubeiza, a green leaf that grows on roadsides and could be a source of food.

Nearby, drivers were offering transportation to the nearest village to the west or to Khan Younis, a city a few miles away. But many families were opting for al-Mawasi refugee camp, a difficult and dangerous five miles away but farthest from the area of hostilities.

Abu Daqqa was urging the family to go west, but Ayat was resisting. She was tired of all the running. She didn’t care about her life anymore, she said, and wanted to stay with her father in the tent.

“It’s my father’s safety that matters most. I would raise a white flag to any tank or soldier who comes into this area,” she said.

“We pose no threat to them, so what will they do to us? Kill us? We’re already living a miserable life in this torn tent.”

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Staff writer Bulos reported from Beirut and special correspondent Shbeir from Absan al-Kabira.

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