Israeli Proposals for Total Expulsion of Gazans Seventy percent of Gazans, their children or grandchildren are refugees. Palestinians refer to the forced displacement of some 700,000 Palestinians in 1948, at the creation of the Israeli state, as Nakba, or The Catastrophe. Four hundred Palestinian villages were eradicated and Palestinians fled from massacres such as what happened at Deir Yassin. As a result of the 1967 so-called Six-Day War, around another 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from the territories. Additional Palestinian refugees were created due to the Gulf War, and the Lebanese and Syrian Civil Wars—although they didn’t necessarily end up in Gaza or the West Bank. From the earliest days of the formulation of Zionism, the dominant ideology was the removal of the Arab population; its slogan, a land without people for a people without a land, meant to encourage Jewish immigration to Palestine, conveniently overlooked the fact that hundreds of thousands of Arabs had lived there for generations. (British Mandate census figures list more than a million Muslims living in Palestine in 1931.) It’s important to look at the reality of what is happening on the ground as well as what is being said by Israeli government figures and ministries to try and deduce Israel’s ultimate intent in Gaza. Israeli Knesset member Ariel Kallner called for a second Nakba to take place in Gaza: “Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of ‘48. Nakba in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join their Nakba, because like then in 1948, the alternative is clear,� Kallner wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. As reported by Israeli journalist, Yuval Abraham, a leaked document from Israel’s Intelligence Ministry dated less than one week after the October 7 Hamas attack proposes the permanent transfer of Gaza’s residents to Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed the document’s authenticity but dismissed it as a mere “concept paper�. Abraham also exposed a similar paper from the right-wing think tank, “Misgav,� headed by Meir Ben-Shabbat, a senior former Israeli security figure and close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Published a little over two weeks ago, the report has the identical conclusion, that Israel needs to transfer, forcibly transfer, all the civilians in Gaza to Egypt. Israel’s continuing wholesale destruction of Palestinian homes and infrastructure, when seen in this light, give credence that another Nakba is the long-term goal. As do the so-called “humanitarian corridors� pushing Gazans south to the border with Egypt. Early in Israel’s assault, IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari made the startling admission that “hundreds of tons of bombs� had already been dropped on the tiny strip, adding that “the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy�. And Netanyahu promised to “demolish Hamas� and “flatten� Gaza.