Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu has said that dropping a nuclear weapon on the Gaza Strip is “an option”, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports.

Speaking in a radio interview, he said that “there are no non-combatants in Gaza,” adding that providing humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave would constitute “a failure.”

Reacting to the statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Eliyahu’s comments are “divorced from reality” and that Israel and its military are acting in accordance with international law in order to avoid harm to non-combatants.

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