After he said that in an interview and, understandably, everyone went crazy, including the United States administration, Eliyahu walked it back a bit saying it was just a metaphor for flattening Gaza and he did not mean literally drop a nuclear bomb.

I am not sure dropping a nuclear bomb is smart, regardless of the laws and international treaties it might break. Nuclear fallout does not stop at the border just because it isn't carrying a passport. Israel, with lots of border communities, is pretty close to Gaza, as is Egypt at the other end, and dropping a nuclear bomb in that little area could be disastrous for far more than Gaza.

You and I, private citizens, can shoot our mouths off and say what we want, do this, do that, turn Gaza into a parking lot, drop the bomb, etc, and it all means nothing and affects nothing, and is just a way of getting out our frustrations. A Minister is representative of the government, like it or not, and things a Minister says carry far more weight. Can you imagine the USA deciding to stop providing military aid out of concern the Israeli government might decide to nuke Gaza?

On the other hand, the fact that he said it, even if he didnt mean it and even if nobody else in the government will back him up and definitely nobody else will consider it, maybe Hamas terrorists will start to pee in their pants a little bit, if they arent already.

All that being said, PM Netanyahu among others, has harshly criticized Eliyahu and Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (Eliyahu's boss as party head). Netanyahu has supposedly suspended him from cabinet meetings, though from what I read that is actually a meaningless gesture as he does not have the ability to suspend him - there is no such thing. He can fire him, but not suspend him. Some, including internationally, are calling for Netanyahu to do just that - fire Minister Amichai Eliyahu. That could cause an immediate coalition crisis, unless Ben Gvir himself does it for Netanyahu.