Abbas: Israeli call for Gazans to move south a ‘second Nakba’

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas appears to join calls for Palestinians to remain in northern Gaza after the Israeli army ordered civilians to evacuate.

Abbas “completely rejects the displacement of our people from the Gaza Strip, because it will be tantamount to a second Nakba for our people,” he says, 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.

Israel says it wants to minimize civilian casualties as it goes after Hamas terrorists entrenched in residential areas of the Strip.

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