Many believe new offensive, along with tightening of siege, is following blueprint for removing remaining population

Hospitals shelled, shelters set alight, men and boys separated from their families and taken away in military vehicles; a year into Israel-Hamas war, civilians clinging on in northern Gaza say the situation is worse than it has ever been.

About 400,000 people have remained in Gaza City and surrounding towns since Israel cut the area off from the rest of the territory and issued evacuation orders. Some are unwilling to leave home, afraid they will never be allowed to return; others decided to stay put for the sake of elderly or disabled family members. Civilians have reported that the routes to the relative safety of the south are unsafe, citing sniper fire and detention by Israeli forces.

Detainees say they were sent into unexplored houses and tunnels before soldiers, in violation of Geneva conventions

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After they burned down his family home in northern Gaza, Israeli troops separated Ramez al-Skafi from his family and detained him. They had a particular job in mind for him, he said.

For the next 11 days in early July, the 30-year-old Palestinian said he was sent into one house after another in his home district, Shuja’iya, watched by his Israeli military minders. According to the account he gave the Guardian, they turned him into a human shield against booby-traps and Hamas gunmen.