Israeli minister renews call for striking Gaza with ‘nuclear bomb'

Israel's far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu on Wednesday renewed his call for striking the Gaza Strip with a “nuclear bomb.”

“Even in The Hague they know my position,” The Times of Israel newspaper quoted Eliyahu as saying during a tour in the West Bank city of Hebron, in reference to his previous call for using nuclear weapons in the Gaza Strip.

In November, Eliyahu said dropping a “nuclear bomb” on the Gaza Strip is “an option.”

The hardline minister, who has extremist rhetoric against Palestinians, also called for encouraging Gaza's population to migrate from the enclave.

On Dec. 29, South Africa filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requesting an injunction against Israel on the grounds that Israeli attacks on Gaza violate the Genocide Convention.

The South African legal team has included Eliyahu's statements on the Gaza Strip in the file presented to the court.

Following the completion of hearings on Jan. 11 - 12, the court began deliberations after examining the parties' submissions and evidence.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on the Gaza Strip following an Oct. 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85% of Gaza's population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.