ISTANBUL

The Arab world issued statements condemning remarks Sunday by an Israeli minister on using a "nuclear bomb" against Gaza.

Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said “one of Israel’s options in the war in Gaza is to drop a nuclear bomb on the Strip,” The Times of Israel reported.

In a radio interview, Eliyahu also “voiced his objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza.”

The remarks are evidence of the “extent of deviation and extremism,” Egypt’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said on X.

“The international community must decisively confront the rhetoric of violence, hatred and racism,” he said.

The Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry said on X that “the Israeli occupation and its aggression against the Palestinian people has reached a dangerous stage and its arrogance has reached a degree of brutality unprecedented in human history.”

The ministry reiterated Kuwait’s “appeal to the international community and the (UN) Security Council to stop the crimes of genocide against the brotherly people of Palestine."

The United Arab Emirates’ Foreign Ministry said the remarks “constitute a violation of international law and incitement to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law and war crimes, and it also raises grave concern about the existence of an intention to commit the crime of genocide.”

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) also condemned the remarks, saying it “reflects extremism and hate speech, incitement to violence, organized terrorism and the crime of genocide committed daily by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people, in flagrant violation of international law and international conventions and resolutions."

Following his remarks, Eliyahu was suspended from government meetings indefinitely, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, adding his statements “are not based on reality.”

The Israeli army is “operating in accordance with the highest standards of international law to avoid harming innocents,” the office said.

The number of Palestinians killed in Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip has risen to 9,770, the Health Ministry in the blockaded enclave announced Sunday.

“The death toll as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7 is 9,770, including 4,800 children and 2,550 women,” the ministry said in a statement.

*Writing by Mahmoud Barakat