An ultra-nationalist Israeli minister said on Sunday that using a nuclear bomb against the Gaza Strip in the ongoing war against the Palestinian movement Hamas was “an option”.
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu said in a radio interview that he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israeli retaliation in the Palestinian territory following the deadly attack by Hamas on Israeli soil on October 7.
To the journalist who asked him in the light of his statements if the solution would be in his eyes to drop “some kind of nuclear bomb on the entire Gaza Strip, raze it and kill everyone”, the minister replied: “it is a option”. .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly responded, issuing a statement denouncing the statements as “disconnected from reality” and adding that the Israeli military was working to save “non-combatants” in the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Netanyahu also suspended the minister’s participation in government meetings “until further notice.”
Faced with the outcry caused by his remarks, the minister posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) stating that his “statement about atomic weapons is metaphorical”.
According to Hamas’ latest report on Saturday, 9,488 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the Gaza Strip, in the war triggered by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s bloody attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
According to Israeli authorities, at least 1,400 people died on the Israeli side, most of them civilians killed on the same day of the Hamas attack.
At least 345 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, according to the army.
