Israel-Hamas war latest update: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended the far-right minister, who had said that nuking Gaza ia an option, saying his words were not based in reality.
“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,” Netanyahu said in a statement released from his office on X.
Earlier, Eliyahu was asked in an interview with Radio Kol Berama if Israel would drop a nuclear bomb on Gaza. To this, he replied, “This is one of the possibilities.”
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Eliyahu is a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party.
He, when asked about the hostages being held by Hamas in the Gaza, said that there is a price to be paid in the war.
“I pray and hope for their return, but there is a price to be paid in war,” he said. “Why are the lives of the abductees, whose release I really want, more important than the lives of the soldiers and the people who will be murdered later?” He asked.
Calling Gaza citizens “Nazis”, Eliyahu also objected to any humanitarian aid being allowed to Gaza, saying, “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid,” and argued that “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.”
Israel declared a war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response to the Palestinian militant outfit’s brutal October 7 attack in which more than 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
The Israeli military has been pounding Gaza since the October 7 attack and launched a coordinated air and ground assault late last month. So far, more than 9,400 Palestinians have bee killed in Gaza in Israeli strikes.
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