Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday warned against a “second Nakba” catastrophe facing Palestinians after the Jewish state ordered the evacuation of north Gaza amid the ongoing Hamas-Israel war.
We “completely reject the displacement of our people from the Gaza Strip, because it will be tantamount to a second Nakba for our people,” he said during his meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman, according to a statement published by the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The Nakba, or “catastrophe,” refers to some 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes during the 1948 war that coincided with Israel’s creation.
His remarks came after Israel ordered the Gaza Strip residents to flee from the north, an area home to some 1.1 million people. The UN warned of this order’s "devastating humanitarian consequences."
This order concurs with the seventh day of the war between the Jewish state and the “Hamas” movement and the increased possibility of a ground invasion of the besieged Strip.
The Strip has been under the control of the Movement since 2007 when the latter expelled the Palestinian Authority from it by force.
Israel's military warned residents of Gaza City on Friday morning that they had to leave the city and head into the southern half of the Gaza Strip, affirming that they would not be allowed to return before another statement was issued.
Hamas rejected the orders to evacuate the north of the Strip that continues to be shelled by Israel.
The Movement said that the Palestinians reject the threat of the occupation leaders and their calls on them in Gaza to leave their homes and move to the south or to Egypt. “We are steadfast on our land, in our homes, and in our cities... and there will be no displacement or deportation.”
There have been repeated calls for opening humanitarian corridors before the potential ground invasion by Israel, especially through the Rafah Border Crossing.
Egypt's President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi on Thursday urged Gazans to "stay steadfast and remain on their land," warning that the displacement of Gaza residents ends the Palestinian cause.
