Palestine President warns of 2nd 'Nakba' as Israel readies Gaza invasion
The Nakba, or "catastrophe", refers to some 760,000 Palestinians expelled from their homes during the 1948 war coinciding with Israel's creation.
Palestinians look for survivors in the rubble of a destroyed building hit during an Israeli air strike as an injured woman is helped in Rafah in southern Gaza. Photo: AFP
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas has warned against a "second Nakba" facing Palestinians after the Israeli army asked more than one million people to relocate ahead of a possible ground offensive.
Abbas "completely rejects the forced displacement of our people from the Gaza Strip, because it will be tantamount to a second Nakba for our people," he said on Friday, 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.
His remarks came after the Israeli military dropped leaflets on blockaded Gaza, warning people to flee from the north, an area home to some 1.1 million people.
Abbas met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Amman on Friday.
Abbas's Palestinian Authority is seated in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank while Gaza is under the Hamas group.
Israeli forces have launched thousands of strikes on Gaza since Saturday, killing more than 1,530 people according to a health ministry toll.
The war erupted in the wake of cross-border attacks by Hamas militants, which killed more than 1,300 people, the Israeli military said.
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