Following two months of fighting, the majority of Gaza’s population is now homeless after being forced into even smaller sections of the already small enclave by an Israeli bombardment, where both babies and the elderly dwell in tents amidst the debris.

After being driven from their homes in the Gaza Strip over 61 days of conflict, three ladies are now in a desperate search for safety and refuge after hopping around under airstrikes and shellfire.

Zainab Khalil, 57, is seeking to move for a fourth time as Israeli tanks roll into the southern city of Khan Younis. Israa al-Jamala, 28, lives in a tent tending her infant daughter who was born the night a short-lived truce began. And Mai Salim walks by the Egyptian border fearing she and her family will be forced across it into a life of permanent exile.

Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people were taken unawares by the sudden disaster that began to unfold for them on Oct. 7 as Israeli jets began strikes to retaliate for a surprise Hamas attack across the border that Israel says killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians.

The Israeli military has vowed to crush Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza and is pledged to Israel’s destruction, but says the group hides its weapons, command centres and fighters among a civilian population it uses as “human shields”. Hamas denies this.