Benjamin Netanyahu suspends Israeli right-wing minister who suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza in an astonishing remark during a radio interview

Benjamin Netanyahu has suspended an Israeli right-wing minister until “further notice” after suggesting that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza was “an option.”

In a radio interview, Israeli Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician who is part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, said he was not entirely satisfied with the extent of Israeli retaliation since the October 7 massacre.

The attacks killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials say, while more than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages were taken hostage by Hamas.

The far-right minister told Israel’s Kol Barama radio that “there are no non-combatants in Gaza,” adding that providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip would be “a failure.”

When asked whether, since he believes there are no non-combatants, a nuclear attack to “kill everyone” on the Gaza Strip is an option, he replied: Eliyahu replied, “That is one way.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office quickly responded to the minister’s comments, releasing a statement describing them as “detached from reality,” adding that Israel and the IDF act in accordance with international law to prevent harm to non-combatants.

In a follow-up question about the estimated 240 hostages held in Gaza, Eliyahu said that “in war we pay a price.”

“Why are the lives of the hostages… more important than the lives of the soldiers?” he said.

Following the outrage over his comments, Eliyahu said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that his statement about the atomic bomb was “metaphorical.”

He also said Israel was “determined to do everything possible to return the hostages safe and sound.”

Following the outrage over his comments, Eliyahu later said in a post on X that his statement about the atomic bomb was “metaphorical.”

Later on Sunday morning, Netanyahu’s office announced that Eliyahu had been suspended from government meetings until further notice.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid called for the minister’s resignation.

“The presence of radicals in the government endangers us and the objectives of the war – defeating Hamas and returning all hostages,” Lapid wrote on X, adding that Netanyahu “must shoot (Eliyahu) this morning.”

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Otzma Yehudit party to which Eliyahu belongs, said he had spoken to the minister, who in turn clarified that he was speaking “metaphorically.”

Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant also addressed X, calling Eliyahu’s statements “unfounded,” adding that it is “good that these are not the people responsible for Israel’s security.”

The Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum, which represents relatives of people taken to Gaza by Hamas militants, denounced Eliyahu’s “reckless and cruel” statement.

“International law, together with the fundamental principles of human morality and common sense, strictly prohibits the use of weapons of mass destruction,” it said in a statement calling for the release of all hostages.

Israel has never admitted that it has an atomic bomb.

Netanyahu has faced tensions in his government after an extraordinary row broke out in his war cabinet after the prime minister appeared to blame security and intelligence officials for failing to detect signs that Hamas’ devastating invasion was imminent .

Netanyahu, who faced anger from the opposition and Israeli border communities over security lapses before the October 7 Hamas attack, made the accusations in a post that he later deleted and replaced with an apology.

It exposed apparent infighting within Israel’s emergency government after what was intended as a show of unity between Netanyahu, Defense Minister Gallant and Knesset member Benny Gantz.

The members of the war cabinet released a joint statement announcing the expansion of ground operations in Gaza and saying the country was “more united than ever” last night, but Netanyahu’s comments shortly afterwards provoked widespread reaction.

“Never, under any circumstances, was Prime Minister Netanyahu warned of Hamas’s intention to start a war,” his now-deleted post on the prime minister’s account read.

“On the contrary, all security officials, including the head of military intelligence and the head of Shin Bet (Israel’s internal security service), believed that Hamas had been deterred.

“This was the assessment that was submitted to the Prime Minister and the (security) Cabinet again and again by all security officials and the intelligence community, until the outbreak of war.”

The message was published X hours after Netanyahu gave a press conference late on Saturday in which he was asked whether he had been warned of the danger of an attack.

It was removed Sunday morning and replaced a few minutes later.

“I was wrong,” he stated in the new post.

“Things I said after the press conference should not have been said, and for that I apologize.

“I fully support all heads of the security establishment. I support the Military Chief of Staff and the commanders and soldiers of the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) who are on the front lines fighting for our home. Together we will win,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, after 30 days of war, Israel continued its brutal assault on Hamas overnight, with IDF jets attacking a “terror base”, troops fighting militants “at close quarters” and destroying part of the group’s tunnel network dismantled northern Gaza.

Nearly a month after the worst attack in the country’s history, Israel, which sent troops into the narrow Palestinian territory last month, has managed to hit “more than 2,500 terrorist targets” by “ground air and naval forces,” the army said on Sunday.

A statement said ground soldiers engaged in “close combat” as Israeli fighter jets attacked targets at night, including a “Hamas military compound” at an undisclosed location.

A video shared on the IDF’s social media also showed them uncovering one of the terror groups’ hidden tunnels, long seen as a major security challenge, used in the past for smuggling and raids into Israel, and also as a serious obstacle for Israeli forces attempting to enter Israel. operate in Gaza.

“While Hamas prevents its citizens from reaching safety in southern Gaza, Hamas hides in their elaborate network of terror tunnels.

“IDF forces have discovered multiple entry points during operational activities in Northern Gaza,” they posted on X in the early hours of Sunday.

More than 240 Israeli and foreign hostages were kidnapped by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack, officials say, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected proposals for a ceasefire until the Islamist group releases them all.

Israel said Thursday it had hit 12,000 targets in Gaza during the war, one of the heaviest bombardments in recent history.

The Health Ministry in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, says more than 9,480 Gazans, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israeli attacks and the intensifying ground campaign.