The Foreign Office (FO) has issued a statement regarding an Israeli minister’s threat of using nuclear force against the Palestinians, saying, “We are appalled by statement of an Israeli minister threatening nuclear force against Palestinians”.

“Reflects an intention for ethnic cleansing and genocide. This is a wake up call for international community to the threat posed by Israeli aggression to regional peace, security and stability,” the FO said.

Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu, an ultranationalist politician part of Netnayahu’s ruling coalition, told Israel’s Kol Barama radio that he was not entirely satisfied with the scale of Israel’s retaliation in Gaza.

When the interviewer asked whether the Israeli minister advocated dropping “some kind of atomic bomb” on the Gaza Strip “to kill everyone”, Eliyahu replied: “That’s one option”.