Any incursion could be pivotal in fighting between the Israeli military and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which on Saturday launched the bloodiest attack on the country since the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. Israel has already launched the heaviest air strikes on Gaza ever, and has mobilised 300,000 reservists and amassed tanks near the border. The threats of a ground invasion have conjured up images of the Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe that refers to the 1948 war of Israel's creation that led to their mass dispossession.
Mosques and Hamas officials in Gaza Strip have advised residents to stay in their homes despite an Israeli military call for over a million civilians to move south within 24 hours. Israel has already launched heavy airstrikes on Gaza and mobilized reservists in response to Hamas attack. The Israeli relocation order has been compared to the Nakba, the mass dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 war. The UN Palestinian refugee agency describes the situation in Gaza as a "hell hole," and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians. Hamas urges Palestinians to ignore the call to evacuate.
Mosques called on residents of the Gaza Strip not to leave their homes on Friday after Israel's military told all civilians, more than 1 million people, to relocate south ahead of an expected ground invasion that risks high casualties.