On Sunday, Israeli member of Knesset Ariel Kallner made a controversial statement by calling for a second ‘Nakba’ in Gaza amid the ongoing armed conflict between Hamas and the Israeli army.
“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.

Nakba means “the catastrophe” in Arabic. It is marked on 15th May to commemorate the displacement of more than 760,000 Palestinians in 1948 during the establishment of the state of Israel.

The Palestinian group Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israel in years on Saturday, killing hundreds and wounding several others in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.

The Israeli military said it had responded with airstrikes into Gaza, where witnesses reported hearing heavy explosions and multiple dead being carried into hospitals.

The attack marked an unprecedented infiltration into Israel, and the heaviest blow in its conflict with Palestinians since the suicide bombings of the Second Intifada some two decades ago.