All of Gaza City would be evacuated and relocated to the south of the Gaza Strip if another Israeli citizen is abducted and taken to Gaza, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz warned on Tuesday, saying intelligence information showed there were current plans to that effect.
Katz made his remarks at a commemoration event for soldiers killed in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. He gave no further details.
Katz said he was warning the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas and its supporters, specifically naming Iran and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
“If even a single Israeli soldier or civilian is abducted, the entire city of Gaza with its houses and terror towers and its million inhabitants will be evacuated to the south,” Katz said. If a kidnapping were to occur, Israel would conduct itself as it had during the Gaza war, he warned.
Israeli news portal ynet reported that Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip had been called on to be more vigilant because Hamas could try to respond to a series of targeted killings of senior members of the organization.
The information could not be independently verified.
War with high casualty figures
During the massacre on October 7, 2023, Hamas and militants from other extremist organizations abducted more than 250 people from Israel to the Gaza Strip. Two thirds of them were brought back to Israel alive while the remaining hostages were killed or died in captivity.
The unprecedented attack, in which around 1,200 people were killed in Israel, triggered the Gaza war. Since then, more than 73,900 Palestinians have been killed, according to the Hamas-controlled health authority in the Gaza Strip. The figures do not distinguish between civilians and armed fighters.