Netanyahu says minister’s statements about nuking Gaza ‘divorced from reality’

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday suspended membership of Israeli minister Amichai Eliyahu after he made statements about dropping an atomic bomb on the Gaza Strip.

“Amichai Eliyahu’s words are detached from reality,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“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.”

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Eliyahu, heritage minister from the Otzma Yehudit party said that one of Israel’s options in the war in Gaza is to drop a nuclear bomb on the enclave, the Times of Israel reported on Sunday.

“This is one of the possibilities,” Eliyahu was quoted as saying in an interview with Radio Kol Berama when he was asked whether an atomic bomb should be dropped on the enclave.

Hamas said that Eliyahu’s comments reflect the unprecedented terrorism of the Netanyahu government.

The minister is not part of Israel’s security cabinet which is involved in the wartime decision-making, nor does he hold sway over the cabinet directing the Israeli operation against Hamas, according to the Times of Israel.