During an interview on Radio Kol Berama, Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu was asked whether an atomic bomb should be dropped on Gaza. Eliyahu responded that “this is one of the possibilities,” reported the Times of Israel. Eliyahu is a member of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit party, and as such he is not a member of the security cabinet and has no voice in security matters, nor does he have any influence in the war cabinet.
Eliyahu also voiced his objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid,” adding that “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza.” He backs retaking the Gaza Strip’s territory and restoring the settlements there. Asked about the fate of the Palestinian population, he said: “They can go to Ireland or deserts, the monsters in Gaza should find a solution by themselves.” He said the northern Gaza Strip has no right to exist, adding that anyone waving a Palestinian or Hamas flag “shouldn’t continue living on the face of the Earth.”
The minister’s comments have quickly caused a stir in Israel and beyond. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disavowed Eliyahu’s comment about nuking Gaza: “Amichai Eliyahu’s words are detached from reality,” Netanyahu said in a statement. He then followed with an obvious lie. “Israel and the IDF are acting in accordance with the highest standards of international law in order to prevent harm to uninvolved people, and we will continue to do that all the way to victory.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid lambasted Eliyahu’s assertion that dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip is a possibility, branding it “a horrifying and insane remark by an irresponsible minister.” “He offended the families of the [241 Gaza] captives, offended Israeli society and harmed our international standing,” Lapid said. “The presence of the extremists in the government endangers us and the success of the war goals—defeating Hamas and returning the hostages.”
Lapid also demanded that “Netanyahu must fire him this morning.”
Netanyahu didn’t fire him, he merely suspended Eliyahu from participation in cabinet meetings, which some critics considered a joke since the cabinet hardly meets anymore.
Eliyahu responded to the uproar by saying he was merely speaking metaphorically, but that his point was that “a forceful and disproportionate response” is required. “This is the only formula with which democracies can deal with terror,” he added.
One might suspect that Eliyahu’s real crime in the eyes of some in Israel was not his advocacy of a nuclear strike but rather his implication that Israel has the capability to do so—a secret that has been all-but-admitted to but never explicitly stated.
