A woman in Gaza traveled south with her family to safety. Now, they're running out of food and water.

• Hundreds of thousands of people have been fleeing North Gaza to the South amid Israeli airstrikes. 
• This comes ahead of Israel's planned ground invasion in Gaza.
• Insider spoke with one Gaza City resident about what the journey was like.

This week, the Israeli military ordered a mass evacuation of civilians from northern Gaza to the southern part of the blockaded strip.

The order to flee came ahead of a planned ground invasion from the Israeli army and affected nearly 1.1 million residents. Hundreds of thousands decided to take the journey.

Some Palestinians traveled on foot and mule-drawn carriages. Others were fortunate enough to have a car or hitch a ride on a bus or a truck.

However, it appeared that the trek to safety was not so safe. An eyewitness who previously spoke to Insider and verified multiple witness reports said that airstrikes killed scores of civilians utilizing a safe route to escape bombing in the north. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 70 people died.

The Israel Defense Forces, which is carrying out its most intensive air campaign against Gaza, denied that its munitions killed the civilians, the Guardian reported. Hamas, the militant group that governs the strip, said Israel was to blame.

Now, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are crowded in the southern parts of the region, as food, water, fuel, electricity, and medical equipment are in both high demand and short supply. This is due to the restriction of resources that Israel has put on the area, as human rights groups beg for humanitarian corridors to provide much-needed aid.

Insider spoke with one Gaza resident, Amjad Shabat, who fled Gaza City with her family, about what it's like to live near the Rafah border crossing. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Who did you leave with? Are you safe right now?

I used to live in Gaza City. I left with my husband, my daughter, my sister, and my mother to my in-laws. So we're staying at the house of my in-laws near the Rafah border that is to the south of the Gaza Strip.

When did you leave?

The evacuation process started the morning of, I believe, Wednesday. And we left in the afternoon of that day. So yes, upon the calls of Israeli occupation forces to leave the northern Gaza strip to the south. This was a massive evacuation process.

What was the process of leaving like?

Very, very, very scary. Very frightening. We left already under the massive airstrikes that have been targeting Gaza for three days, four days at that time. Israel only kept one main street that links the northern of Gaza to the south, which is Salah al-Din Road. Along 15-20 kilometers, you saw a series, a line of cars, trucks, and any transportation that could take people. I was very scared and sad at the same time because this all brought the memories of 1948 when the Palestinian people had to leave their villages.

What did you bring, and what did you leave behind?

We left with nothing. I have been wearing the same clothes since Wednesday. We were lucky that my father-in-law had a car, so he came from Rafah to Gaza, which takes him two hours … He came and he took us out of the city. We actually were lucky because many of our friends and many of our colleagues couldn't leave Gaza until now because they couldn't find a ride.

What was the drive like?

Very scary. At one moment, my father-in-law was about to hit the side of the road because he couldn't see. We literally piled up inside the car. Thirteen people in a car with a capacity of five people, you couldn't see both sides. And because of this massive crowd of people leaving Gaza into the south, people were very stressed and scared. I believe they were less focused on driving than on running away from the continuous airstrikes. The massive and the terrifying airstrikes.

There were voices of airstrikes and bombing when we traveled, but to be honest, not exactly where we've been. I kept hearing the voices. They were in the background but not in front of my eyes.

Have you had any updates on your home in Gaza City? Do you even know if it's still standing?

I don't know. I just recently bought my flat. My husband and I had been saving for years to have the top flat in the center of Gaza City. We left everything. So I really don't want it to be destroyed.

Right behind the neighborhood I used to live in, it was completely destroyed. And all across the road, destruction is everywhere, wherever we go. We turn our heads, there is destruction.

What is your situation like now?

The most important and the most terrifying thing that we face is the scarcity of basic resources, such as water and food. We've run out of bread today. Three of my brothers-in-law had to stay in front of the bakery for three hours where they couldn't obtain any loaf of bread because when the time came for them to buy their bread, there wasn't any more bread. We are out of water, so we can't use the toilet, we can't wash our clothes or wash the dishes. We keep the freshwater we can drink. No electricity, of course. No internet. I'm lucky to have neighbors who have a private generator, and they have something like cellular data, and they connect for me.

What is it like near the Rafah border?

I've been to one of our schools. UNRWA is the UN institution that's responsible for feeding and finding work and helping the refugees of Palestine. They're turning their schools into shelters to help thousands of families. At a school with a capacity of 1,000 people, between 2,000 and 4,000 people are literally piling up.

Others are in serious shock because they run away under the massive airstrikes where buildings may be demolished in front of their eyes. Others, they can't focus their eyes. They can't speak. I went to interview one of them to see how are the people's mental health. They refused to speak with me.

Men had to sleep outside, and it's getting colder and colder. The streets are full. The city where were we evacuated to is a very small city. And the infrastructure, of course, is not suitable to hold this number of people.

People who are there have run away without medicines. People with chronic diseases are very frightened of any health crisis that they may face because they don't have their medicines. People with diabetes, with blood pressure, with a history of heart disease.

They're very afraid.