Israel’s minister suspended over Gaza ‘nuclear option’ comment

JERUSALEM: An Israeli minister was suspended from government meetings indefinitely following his remarks seemingly opening the door to using nuclear weapons in Gaza Strip, said the office of Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, told Israel’s Kol Barama radio that he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel’s retaliation in the Palestinian territory.

The attacks killed 1,400 people, Israeli officials say while Israel’s military campaign in Gaza since October 7 has killed 9,770 people, most of them women and children, the Gaza health ministry says.

When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping “some kind of atomic bomb” on the Gaza Strip “to kill everyone”, Eliyahu replied: “That’s one option”.

Responding to the comments, Netanyahu’s office said “[Heritage Minister] Amichai Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality,” adding that that Israel was trying to spare “non-combatants” in Gaza.

Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying that the heritage minister, from a far-right party in the coalition government, was suspended from cabinet meetings “until further notice”.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

Minister Amihai Eliyahu’s statements are not based in reality. Israel and the IDF are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents. We will continue to do so until our victory.

— Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 5, 2023

Israel and the Israeli army “are operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents,” the statement alleged.

His remark drew swift condemnation from around the Arab world.

The League of Arab States said in a statement: “The racist statements of Israeli Minister Eliyahu are revealing. Not only does he admit that they possess a nuclear weapon, but he also confirms the reality of the Israelis’ abhorrent racist view towards the Palestinian people.”

A spokesperson for Hamas said Eliyahu represented “unprecedented criminal Israeli terrorism (that) constitutes a danger to the entire region and the world”.

Saudi Arabia criticised the Netanyahu government for not dismissing him.

“Failing to immediately dismiss the minister from the government and simply freezing his membership reflects the height of disdain for all human, moral, religious and legal standards and values of the Israeli government,” the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement.

Jordan said the minister’s remarks were a “call for genocide and a hate crime” against the Palestinians.

تصريحات الوزير الاسرائيلي #الياهو العنصري كاشفة. فهو ليس فقط يعترف بامتلاكهم #سلاح_نووي وهو السر الذي يعرفه الجميع.. لكنه يكرس حقيقة النظرة العنصرية المقيتة للاسرائيليين تجاه #الشعب_الفلسطيني. هذا هو الوجه الحقيقي لحكومة الاحتلال لكل من يدافع عنها في الغرب.@antonioguterres…

— الأمين العام لجامعة الدول العربية (@lassecgen) November 5, 2023

Meanwhile, Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the Israeli minister’s remarks, saying that this “extremist mindset with access to nuclear power poses a grave danger to global peace”.

I strongly condemn the Israeli minister’s reprehensible threat to drop atomic bomb on the occupied and innocent people of Gaza. This extremist mindset with access to nuclear power poses a grave danger to global peace. The IAEA must immediately monitor the Zionist state’s nuclear…

— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) November 5, 2023

He also called on International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to “monitor the Zionist state’s nuclear sites” and called on the world to “respond decisively to this extremism and nuclear madness”.