NEW DELHI – Pakistan, Maldives and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Monday strongly condemned an Israeli threat to use a nuclear bomb against Gaza.
Amihai Eliyahu, an Israeli minister of the Otzma Yehudit party, said in a radio interview that using a nuclear bomb in Gaza “is one of the options” under consideration by the Israeli government.
“This statement is extremely concerning, especially at a time when the Israeli government is already engaged in a disproportionate military aggression against innocent civilians in Palestine,” the Maldives government said in a statement.
Pakistan said the threat is “a wake up call” for the international community as Israel is endangering regional peace and security.
“We are appalled by the statement of an Israeli minister threatening nuclear force against Palestinians,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It “reflects an intention for ethnic cleansing and genocide”, it added.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said the Israeli minister’s remarks were an “extension of terrorist racist ideology” of the Jewish state.
With Israel defying calls to stop its indiscriminate bombing of Gaza’s 2.3 million population, international anger is rising.
Israel’s key backers the United States, Britain and the European Union are also facing growing pressure to halt the humanitarian catastrophe in Palestine.
Many have highlighted the West’s egregious doublespeak on human rights in their support for Israel.
Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry in a social media post, which quoted a message of United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, last week highlighted Gaza’s grave situation.
“Collective might of the so-called civilised world is unleashed on one of most hapless people on earth,” he said, asking “where are the states” that claim to champion human rights.
“Your selective application and tacit approval is not surprising at all,” Sabry said.
Israel has destroyed a large number of schools, mosques, neighborhoods and hospitals in Gaza.
Ambulances carrying victims of Israeli bombing have been hit by the Israeli air force.
“Now, for nearly one month, civilians in Gaza, including children and women, have been besieged, denied aid, killed and bombed out of their homes. This must stop,” Guterres said on Saturday.
The Israeli minister’s nuclear threat has caused further alarm in the Middle East and raises the prospect of a wider regional conflict.
The Israeli government said the minister’s statement was “detached from reality.”
The Jewish state officially does not admit it possesses nuclear weapons but is estimated to have 90 nuclear devices as per a study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). – Bernama
