“Even in The Hague they know my position,” The Times of Israel newspaper quoted Eliyahu as saying during a tour in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on Wednesday, in reference to his previous call for using nuclear weapons in Gaza.

In November, Eliyahu said dropping a “nuclear bomb” on Gaza is “an option.”

The hardline minister, who has extremist rhetoric against Palestinians, also called for encouraging Gaza’s population to migrate from the enclave.

On December 29, South Africa filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) requesting an injunction against Israel because Israeli attacks on Gaza violate the Genocide Convention.

The South African legal team has included Eliyahu’s statements on Gaza in the file presented to the court.

Following the completion of hearings on January 11-12, the court began deliberations after examining the parties’ submissions and evidence.

Israel has launched a deadly offensive on Gaza following an October 7 Hamas attack, killing at least 25,700 Palestinians and injuring 63,740 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has left 85 percent of Gaza’s population internally displaced amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while more than half of the enclave’s infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.