Shehbaz asks IAEA to monitor Israeli nuclear sites

Former prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has strongly condemned the statement of an Israeli minister about the “possible option” of dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza strip. The PML-N leader has said such an extremist mindset with access to nuclear power is a grave danger to world peace.

“The IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] must immediately monitor the Zionist state’s nuclear sites and the world must respond decisively to this extremism and nuclear madness.

“The [UN] Security Council and international community cannot stay silent on the massacre of innocent Palestinians and Israel’s plan for global catastrophe. We also call for a united diplomatic effort among Islamic countries to address this imminent danger,” Shehbaz said in a tweet on Sunday.

One of the ministers in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, Amichai Eliyahu, said on Sunday that one of Israel’s options in the war in Gaza is to drop a nuclear bomb on the strip.

Asked in an interview with Radio Kol Berama whether an atomic bomb should be dropped on the enclave, Eliyahu, who served as heritage minister, said “this is one of the possibilities.”

Eliyahu also voiced his objection to allowing any humanitarian aid into Gaza, saying “we wouldn’t hand the Nazis humanitarian aid,” and charging that “there is no such thing as uninvolved civilians in Gaza”.

Netanyahu later suspended the minister, whose statement was widely condemned, with Saudi Arabia  describing the Israeli government’s  failure to dismiss Eliyahu as a reflection of its disregard for “all human, ethical, religious and legal standards”.

Responding to the statement, Hamas spokesperson said: "These statements reflect the unprecedented criminal Zionist terrorism practiced by this fascist government and its leaders against our people."