Nuking Gaza an option, says far-right Israeli minister

Palestinian star arrested by Israel

The Israeli army announced on Monday it had arrested Ahed Tamimi – an icon of the Palestinian cause around the world – during a raid in the occupied West Bank.

A spokesperson for the army said the 22-year-old activist was “suspected of inciting violence and terrorist activities.” 

Tamimi was apprehended in the town of Nabi Saleh and “transferred to Israeli security forces for further questioning,” they told AFP. 

Since the start of the war in October, Israel has severely cracked down on dissent in the West Bank, arresting and detaining hundreds of Palestinians. 

In Israel itself, the government has ramped up repression of domestic criticism of the war, with activists, academics and citizens subjected to doxxing, job terminations, threats and arrests. 

The crackdown on dissent in the occupied West Bank has accompanied an upsurge in violence – already at fever pitch – involving Israeli settler attacks on civilians and deadly raids by Israel’s security forces.  

Far-right Israeli minister says nuking Gaza an option

Israel’s heritage minister Amichai Eliyahu said on Sunday that one of Israel’s options could be to drop a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu disavowed his cabinet minister’s comment and suspended him from meetings. 

Eliyahu, a member of the far-right Jewish Power party – made the comment in response to a question during a radio interview. 

“Your expectation is that tomorrow morning we’d drop what amounts to some kind of nuclear bomb on all of Gaza, flattening them, eliminating everybody there,” the Radio Kol Berama interviewer said.

“That’s one way,” Eliyahu responded. “The second way is to work out what’s important to them, what scares them, what deters them… They’re not scared of death.”

When the minister was told there are around 240 hostages currently held in the Gaza Strip, he doubled down.

“I pray and hope for their return, but there is a price to be paid in war,” he said. “Why are the lives of the abductees, whose release I really want, more important than the lives of the soldiers and the people who will be murdered later?”

The Israeli minister also voiced objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid”.

Third communications blackout since start of war in Gaza

Gaza on Sunday was subjected to its third total communications blackout since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Palestinian communications company Paltel announced all of its “communication and internet services” were down once again. 

Internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org confirmed that communications were curtailed across the besieged enclave.

Alp Toker, the group’s executive director, said the blackout was likely to be experienced by most residents as a total or near-total loss of connectivity.

Humanitarian agencies have previously warned such blackouts severely disrupt their work, while others have alleged they could cover atrocities.

Internet and telephone lines were last cut at the start of November and end of October, depriving Gaza’s 2.4 million inhabitants of contact with the outside world.

Human Rights Watch expressed concern at the time the blackout could serve as a “cover for mass atrocities”.

Calls for an immediate ceasefire to stop ‘horrific’ killings

The heads of 11 UN agencies and six humanitarian organisations issued a joint plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. 

They called for the protection of civilians and swift entry of food, water, medicine and fuel into the Strip.

In a statement issued Sunday night, the group called Hamas’ surprise 7 October attacks in Israel “horrific.”

“However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel,” the heads of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory said.

The UN and humanitarian organisations said more than 23,000 injured people need immediate treatment and hospitals are overstretched.

“An entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship,” the joint statement said.

The UN and aid organization leaders said over a hundred attacks against health care operations have been reported and 88 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, have been reported killed – “the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.”