The Israeli Prime Minister suspended Minister Amichai Eliyahu’s government from meetings after it suggested that a nuclear attack on the Gaza Strip would be “an option.”
Amichai Eliyahu is Minister of Heritage and Jerusalem Affairs and is associated with a far-right ultra-Orthodox party. He was suspended “indefinitely” but will remain in office.
The information is provided by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which cites an interview on Kol Berama radio in which the minister maintains that “there are no non-combatants in Gaza” and that sending humanitarian aid would be “a failure.”
Asked if from this perspective it would make sense to attack Gaza with a nuclear bomb, the minister stated that “it is an option.”
In response, Benjamin Netanyahu guarantees that Amichai Eliyahu’s statements “are not based on reality” and defends that Israeli forces “are acting in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocent people.”
“We will continue to do so until victory,” the Israeli prime minister wrote on the social network X (formerly Twitter).
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:
Minister Amihai Eliyahu’s statements are not based on 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.
– Prime Minister of Israel (@IsraeliPM) November 5, 2023
Amichai Eliyahu himself later stated, on the social network
ברור לכל בר דעת שהאמירה על אטום היא מטאפורית. אבל בהחלט חייבים תגובה עוצמתית ולא פרופורציונלית לטרור, שתבהיר לנ אצים ותומכיהם שטרור אינו כדאי. זו הנוסחה היחידה שהמדינות הדמוקרטיות יכולות להתמודד בעזרתה עם הטר ור. …
– עמיחי אליהו – Amichay Eliyahu (@Eliyahu_a) November 5, 2023
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid called for Amichai Eliyahu’s resignation, stating that with his words he “harms the families of those kidnapped,” as well as “civil society” and “the international status of Israel.”
This is not the first controversy involving the ultra-Orthodox minister. A few days ago he posted a message on Facebook in which he called the Israeli bombings in Gaza and military operations in the West Bank “a delight to behold.”
Source: TSF
