An ultra-nationalist Israeli minister said on Sunday that using a nuclear bomb against the Gaza Strip was “an option” in the ongoing war against the Palestinian movement Hamas.
Israeli Culture Minister Amichay Eliyahu said in a radio interview that he was not entirely satisfied with the level of Israeli retaliation on Palestinian territory after the deadly Hamas attack on Israeli soil on October 7.
When the journalist asked him, in light of his comments, whether the solution in his eyes would be to “drop some kind of atomic bomb on the entire Gaza Strip, destroy it and kill everyone,” the minister replied: “That is an option.” .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly responded, releasing a statement denouncing the statements “detached from reality” and adding that the Israeli army was working to spare “non-combatants” in the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Netanyahu also suspended the minister’s participation in government meetings “until further notice.”
Given the outcry his comments caused, the minister posted a message on X (formerly Twitter) in which he reiterated that his “statement on nuclear weapons was metaphorical.”
According to Hamas’ latest report on Saturday, 9,488 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the war sparked 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.
According to the army, at least 345 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7.