What if one abduction meant an entire city of a million people had to leave?

So, speaking at a memorial for the 1973 Yom Kippur War on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz made a pretty stark vow.

He said if even one Israeli - soldier or civilian - is abducted in the future, Israel will force the evacuation of all of Gaza City southwards. That’s around 1.1 million people, according to the city’s municipality.

His words were: “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.”

He called it “the language that jihadist terrorist organisations in Gaza and Lebanon understand” - pointing at Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and Turkey’s President Erdogan.

As of today, Tuesday, 22nd September 2026, this hits hard because almost everyone in Gaza has already been displaced at least once. Nearly three years into the war, Gaza’s roughly 2 million people are now squeezed into just 30% of the Strip that Israel doesn’t directly control.

The numbers behind it are staggering. Hamas’s attack on 7th October 2023 killed 1,221 people in Israel and saw 251 hostages taken, per Israeli figures. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has since killed 73,919 people, according to the Gaza health ministry - figures the UN generally considers reliable.

Legal groups point out that forced displacement and destruction of civilian infrastructure can constitute war crimes under the Geneva Conventions - though Israel argues its actions target terrorist infrastructure.

Katz is known for hardline rhetoric. This comes just ahead of Israel’s 27th October elections, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under fire for failing to prevent the 2023 attack and for not securing a decisive military outcome. Katz has also said Israel only agreed to the US-brokered October 2025 ceasefire to free hostages and expects a return to full-scale war.

He also threatened a third strike on Iran, months after the joint US-Israel campaign in late February.

Source: cbinews.tv

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