Israeli Official Says 'Gaza Nakba' Underway, Palestinians to Be Displaced

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter, an Israeli security cabinet member, said on Saturday that the "Gaza Nakba" is underway and that Palestinians will be displaced.

On October 7, Hamas led the deadliest Palestinian militant attack on Israel in history. Israel subsequently launched its heaviest-ever airstrikes on Gaza. According to Israeli officials, 1,200 people in Israel were killed in Hamas' attack, the Associated Press reported, while 11,000 Palestinians have been killed since Sunday, according to officials from the health ministry in Gaza, the AP reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country is "at war" and has cut off supplies of food, fuel, electricity and medicine into Gaza.

As Israeli forces continue their operation against Hamas in northern Gaza, they have pushed deeper into Gaza City, with local officials reporting intense bombardment near several hospitals.

In an interview with Israeli N12 channel, Dichter was asked if images of residents in northern Gaza evacuating south under the orders of the Israeli military were comparable to images of the Nakba. He said, "We are now rolling out the Gaza Nakba. From an operational point of view, there is no way to wage a war—as the IDF seeks to do in Gaza—with masses between the tanks and the soldiers."

The Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic, was the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Over half of the Palestinian population was permanently displaced.

When Dichter was later asked if the people of Gaza would be allowed to return to their homes, he said, "I don't know how it'll end up happening since Gaza City is one-third of the Strip—half the land's population but a third of the territory."

Newsweek reached out to Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Dichter's office via email for comment.

At a press conference on Friday, Netanyahu was asked if he supports Israeli resettlement in Gaza after the war. "No, I don't think so. I said I want full security control," he said. "Gaza must be demilitarized. I don't think [resettlement] is a realistic goal, I'm saying it plainly."

During an appearance on NBC News' Meet the Press on Sunday, Netanyahu told host Kristen Welker: "Gaza has to be demilitarized and Gaza has to be deradicalized. And I think so far, we haven't seen any Palestinian force, including the Palestinian Authority that is able to do it."

He added: "They teach their children to hate Israel. They are not fighting terrorists. They are paying for slay. That is the more Palestinian terrorists murder Jews, the more they get paid and to this date, 36 days after the worst savagery perpetrated on the Jewish people since the Holocaust, the Palestinian Authority president refuses to condemn this savagery."

"We need a different authority. We need a different administration," Netanyahu said, however, he did not say who this would be.

Meanwhile, in the United States, progressive politicians and activists have called on President Joe Biden to support a ceasefire in Gaza in an effort to save civilian lives. However, Biden and Netanyahu both have maintained their position that a ceasefire would not be considered until Hamas returned over 200 hostages that they took in their surprise attack.

Biden has also requested $14.3 billion in funding for Israel in a nearly $106 billion aid package, which also includes funding for Ukraine's war with Russia, among other things. House Republicans passed their own standalone aid package for Israel on November 2, but Senate Democrats blocked it on Tuesday as they believe in Biden's combined aid package.

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