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 Hamas 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 towers, will be evacuated southward with its million residents,” Katz said, referring to Hamas and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken critic of Israel’s Gaza campaign.
“This is the language that the 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 per cent of the territory not controlled by Israel.
Katz, known for his outspoken remarks, recently said that Israel agreed to an October 2025 US-brokered ceasefire declaration only to free the remaining hostages and that he expected Israel, which has kept up strikes at a lower pace, to return to full-scale war in Gaza.
The comments come ahead of October 27 elections in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing criticism from the opposition that he failed both to prevent the attack and to deliver military success afterwards.
