oh...well this just makes the defense of not having much room to relocate the water tribe much weaker....
at best we can say its an inconsistency with this episode maybe
I talked about this scene with a friend again and we accepted that this criticism doesnt hold up
Like at best we can say that the fire nation wouldnt harm the tribe cuz they arent a threat like sokka and katara and theyre not here, and relocating them would take a long time 1/3