Palestinian Foreign Minister Urges IAEA To Take Action On Israel's Nuclear Threat To Gaza Strip

Illustration of the impact of Israeli airstrikes. (Wikimedia Commons/Masser)

JAKARTA - Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki urged the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take action to neutralize Israel's threat to use nuclear weapons in Gaza.

Al-Maliki sent a message to IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi regarding statements made by a right-wing Israeli minister, Amichai Eliyahu.

Eliyahu said the Israeli government was considering the possibility of dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip to fight the Palestinian Hamas group.

Describing Eliyahu's statement as one of the ideas leaked from the Israeli Cabinet meeting to destroy Gaza and carry out genocide against the Palestinian people, Al-Maliki said the statement was completely in line with the widespread discourse in Israel.

“This is considered an official recognition of Israel's possession of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction. "The occupying power has developed nuclear weapons through illegal means and has refused to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons", said Al-Maliki, quoted via Anadolu, Thursday, November 9.

The threat of using nuclear weapons in Gaza aims to escalate the conflict and expand the occupation.

Al-Maliki said the Israeli minister's threat was a threat to all countries. Therefore, the IAEA and its member countries must immediately pay attention to this problem.

He called for international condemnation of Eliyahu's statements and the implementation of all necessary measures to neutralize the real threat to the lives of Palestinians and neighboring countries.

After Eliyahu's remarks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended him from cabinet meetings indefinitely.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has called on Netanyahu to fire Eliyahu. After receiving backlash for his statement, Eliyahu walked back his statement saying that his statement about nuclear bombs was a metaphor.