Today (Sunday), Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu condemn the statements of Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahi, who was asked during an interview for Kol Baramah radio whether “dropping an atom bomb” on the Gaza Strip was needed, and he said “this is one of the possibilities.”
“The statements of Minister Amihai Eliyahu are detached from reality,” Netanyahu said. “Israel and the IDF are following the highest standards of international law to avoid harm to non-combatants, and we will continue to do so until victory.”
Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also responded to Eliyahu’s statement, arguing that this is “a shocking and insane statement of an irresponsible minister. He harmed the families of the kidnapped, harmed Israeli society, and harmed our international standing. The presence of extremists in the government endangers us and the success of the war aims – the victory over Hamas and returning the hostages. Netanyahu needs to fire him right this morning.”
Both statements are a response to an interview Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu gave this morning (Sunday) to Kol Beramah radio, where he expressed his opposition to the introduction of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. “There is no room for the Gaza Strip, there does not need to be an existence for the northern Strip. Any who wave a PLO or Hamas flag do not need live on the earth,” Eliyahu argued. “We would introduce humanitarian aid for the Nazis, we wouldn’t say harm to non-combatants, there are no non-combatants. They aren’t afraid of death, we need to understand what deters them. 50 years, they’ve been breaking IDF deterrence.”
At this stage, Eliyahu was asked by interviewers Yisrael Cohen and Yaki Adamkar if “we need to drop an atom bomb on all of Gaza,” and the minister responded that “this is one of the possibilities.” When asked about the hundreds of Israeli hostages, Eliyahu responded that he “prays and hopes for their return, but there are also costs in war.”
He also argued that “I aim that after the war we go back to establishing the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and go there to rebuild with pride. Make them pay a territorial cost. Regarding the Palestinian citizens? Let them go to Ireland or the deserts, let the monsters in Gaza see to a solution for themselves.”