Israel’s Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu participated Sunday in a Cabinet vote over the phone, local media reported, despite having been suspended earlier in the day by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from Cabinet meetings for saying that dropping an atomic bomb on the Gaza Strip was an "option".
Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party, made the incendiary remarks on Sunday morning in an interview with Kol Barama radio station over humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
"We wouldn't have given the Nazis humanitarian aid. There's no such thing as innocents in Gaza," he said.
Asked by the interviewer whether he advocated dropping "some kind of atomic bomb [on Gaza] to kill everyone," Eliyahu replied, "That's one option." He also said, "In war, we pay a price. … Why are the lives of the hostages [held in Gaza] … more important than the lives of the soldiers?"
