Israel minister threatens Gaza expulsion

JERUSALEM, Sept 22: Israel's defence minister vowed Tuesday to force out all of Gaza City's residents and displace a million people in the war-ravaged territory if any Israeli is abducted in the future. 

Speaking at a memorial for the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Defence Minister Israel Katz also threatened the destruction of infrastructure, which, like the forced displacement of civilians, constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.

"I hereby warn the terrorist organisation and its supporters, from Iran to Erdogan -- if a single Israeli soldier or civilian is kidnapped, the entire city of Gaza, with its houses and terror towers, will be evacuated southward with its million residents," Katz said, referring to Hamas and Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel's Gaza campaign.

"This is the language that the jihadist terrorist organisations in Gaza and Lebanon understand, and this is the language we speak -- evacuation of the population, destruction of infrastructure and taking over the territory," he said, also referring to Lebanese Shia movement Hezbollah.

Gaza City is home to around 1.1 million people, according to the municipality. The entire Gaza Strip has some two million people, who after nearly three years of war have been packed into the 30 percent of the territory not controlled by Israel. Hamas on October 7, 2023 led the deadliest attack ever against Israel in which militants killed 1,221 people and dragged into Gaza some 251 hostages, 44 of them already dead, according to Israeli official figures.�" AFP