Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took the highly unusual step on Sunday of suspending a far-right minister from his government, after the minister said that dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza and killing everyone there was “one way” of dealing with the threat from Hamas.

Mr. Netanyahu’s swift action came amid an immediate and broad outcry over the comments made on Sunday morning by Amichay Eliyahu, the minister of heritage from the ultranationalist Jewish Power party. In his remarks, made to a Hebrew radio station, Mr. Eliyahu also said that there was no such thing as noncombatants in Gaza.