Senior Israeli officials believe that most of the Israeli hostages are being held in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, Channel 12 reported on Motzei Shabbos.

According to the report, the assessment was formed even prior to the launch of the IDF’s ground operation, which is currently focused on the northern Gaza Strip, as most of the hostages were abducted from the music festival near the Nir Oz and Re’im kibbutzim, which are parallel to the southern Gaza Strip.

It is believed that most captives were taken to Gaza on the shortest possible route – directly to the corresponding area in the southern Gaza Strip.

The report added that the government ministers were told that there are an estimated 1.7 million Gazan refugees who have evacuated their homes in the northern Gaza Strip and will not be able to return.

Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter (Likud), the former head of the Shin Bet, caused an uproar when he referred to this estimate in a Channel 12 TV interview on Motzei Shabbos, stating that “in essence, we’re carrying out the Gaza ‘Nakba’ [‘catastrophe’ – how Arabs refer to the mass flight of Arabs from their homes in 1948].

“This is the Gaza Nakba 2023,” Dichter said. “From an operational viewpoint, it’s not possible to conduct a war the way the IDF wants to conduct it when masses [of Gazan civilians] are among the tanks and the soldiers.”

Hundreds of thousands of Gazan civilians have heeded the calls of the IDF in recent days and moved southward to ensure their safety.

“I don’t know how it will end because remember – Gaza City sits on a third of the Gaza Strip – half of the population but a third of the Strip,” Dichter continued. “There is another two-thirds of Gaza, six more refugee camps.”

One journalist wrote: “Haters of Israel worldwide: ‘Israel is deliberately causing the transfer of a population of about a million people. A war crime.’ Israel: ‘Why? This is a humanitarian corridor – to save their lives.’ Minister and Cabinet member Dichter on live TV: ‘This is the Gaza Nakba 2023.'”

On the other hand, right-wing journalist Shimon Riklin responded: “I don’t understand what the problem was with Dichter’s statement: This is the ‘Gaza Nakba 23.’ After all, the absolute majority of the residents of the northern Gaza Strip left their homes. And now the question is not whether to deport them but whether to return them to their homes. And I think it would be a mistake to allow them to return. Does anyone think they should be returned? They’re no longer Nazis? Dichter is absolutely right.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)