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Israel - Chemical Weapons

Israel is not publicly known to possess or produce chemical weapons. Israel actively participated in the negotiations and signed the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which is an international treaty that prohibits the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons, in 13 January 1993, as testimony that it shares the values, norms and goals that the Convention represents and promotes. Of the 193 States committed to the Chemical Weapons Convention, only Israel had not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. Israel refrained from ratifying it given concerns over the threats posed by its neighbors. This is further complicated by Egypt’s efforts to link signing the CWC with Israel joining the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It is important to note that Israel also acceded to the 1925 Geneva Protocol, adheres to export control regimes, including the Australia Group, and traditionally supports the United Nations General Assembly CWC First Committee 3 resolution.

In 2013, Yigal Palmor, the spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry noted that “Unfortunately, Israel signed the convention, other countries in the Middle East, including those that have used chemical weapons recently or in the past are believed to be working to improve their chemical capabilities, have failed to follow suit and have indicated that their position would remain unchanged even if Israel ratifies the convention.”

Israel is believed to have the capacity to produce chemical warfare agents, and probably has stocks of bombs, rockets, and artillery shells. Public reports that a mustard and nerve gas production facility was established in 1982 in the Dimona restricted area are apparently erroneous. Israel has not permitted international inspections of its nuclear facilities or chemical weapons stockpiles.

By late October 2023, according to the Middle East Eye, Israel was set to flood Hamas tunnels with a type of nerve gas or chemical weapon under the surveillance of US Delta Force commandos as part of a surprise attack on Gaza. "The plan hinges on the element of surprise to decisively win the battle, using internationally forbidden gases, particularly nerve gas, and chemical weapons. Large quantities of nerve gas would be pumped into the tunnels," a senior Arab source told the MEE. The source also said the US Delta Force will oversee the operation. The nerve gas that will be pumped into Hamas tunnels will be capable of paralysing bodily movements for six to 12 hours.

Iraq had a well-developed WMD program. In its 8-year war with Iran, Iraq used chemical weapons against Iranian troops, and also against its Kurdish population during the 1980s. Iran, in turn, employed chemical agents on a limited scale during that war. Libya is the other nation on the list of "outlaw" states that used chemical agents in 1987 against Chadian troops. By contrast, Syria has never used chemical or biological agents. On the other hand, Egypt was the first nation in the region to employ chemical agents in the 1963-67 war in Yemen.

Most knowledgeable sources confirmed, despite official Israeli denials, that Israel possessed chemical weapons (CW), and most probably, biological weapons (BW) as well. It was assumed that Israel embarked on the development of CW following reports that Egypt used chemical agents in Yemen in 1963. The CW program was probably accelerated as a result of rumors that Egypt might use chemical weapons in the Sinai during the 1967 and 1973 wars, and Iraqi capabilities and demonstrated willingness to use chemical agents.

Some official U.S. accounts name Israel as one of a handful of countries in the world that has chemical stockpiles. Over the years, there had been accusations and allegations by the former Soviet Union and several Arab states that Israel actually used chemical agents during its invasion of Lebanon in 1982 against Syrian troops, and also against Palestinian civilians in Lebanon and during the intifada. However, there is no credible public record of such use by Israel, save for the use of tear gas in riot situations.

Israel is believed to have secretly built up its own stockpile of chemical and biological weapons decades ago, Foreign Policy reported September 11, 2013, citing a recently unearthed CIA document. American surveillance satellites uncovered in 1982 “a probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility... at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert,” states the secret 1983 CIA intelligence estimate obtained by Foreign Policy (FP). “Other CW production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry,” the document adds.

The US Central Intelligence Agency document made public by the Foreign Policy magazine showed that the intelligence agency possessed substantial evidence dating back to the 1980s, indicating that Israel maintained an inventory of chemical and biological weapons. It also disclosed that the Israeli military accumulated a substantial supply of chemical and biological weapons while amassing an estimated three hundred nuclear weapons during the 1960s and 70s.

The 1983 document stated that US surveillance satellites had identified a "probable CW [chemical weapon] nerve agent production facility and a storage facility" in the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert. The report further suggested that other chemical weapon production capabilities likely existed within Israel's chemical industry. The document did not confirm Israel's possession of lethal chemical agents but suggested they had access to persistent and non-persistent nerve agents, mustard agents, and riot-control agents paired with suitable delivery systems.

According to FP, US intelligence agencies were almost certain that Israel possessed a stockpile of nuclear weapons that the Middle Eastern country developed in the 1960s and 1970s as part of its defense against a possible attack from Arab neighbors. For years, arms control analysts have speculated that Israel built up a range of chemical and biological weapons to complement its alleged nuclear arsenal.

According to the Foreign Policy report, Israeli historian Avner Cohen, in his 1988 book "Israel and the Bomb," claimed that then-Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion ordered the secret development of a chemical weapons stockpile around the 1956 war between Israel and Egypt. The 1983 CIA report also provided an assessment, stating that "Israel, sensing its vulnerability to chemical attacks from neighbouring Arab states with burgeoning CW [chemical weapon] capabilities, initiated a program for chemical warfare readiness in both offensive and defensive dimensions."

Experts’ attention, in particular, was focused on the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) at Ness Ziona, located 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv. The highly-classified research center operated and funded by the Israel Ministry of Defense is alleged to be a military facility manufacturing chemical and biological weapons. The IIBR was allegedly involved in several “accidents.” In one of them, according to the British Foreign Report in 1998, authorities were close to ordering evacuation of homes in the area before scientists discovered there was no threat to the population.

However, to date not much evidence has been published about Israel possessing chemical or nuclear weapons. The newly-discovered CIA memo may be the strongest indication yet, FP writes. “While we cannot confirm whether the Israelis possess lethal chemical agents,” the CIA document is quoted as saying, “several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and non-persistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents, marched with suitable delivery systems.”

The “non-persistent agent” mentioned in the secret document was likely sarin – a nerve gas that was allegedly used in the 13 August 2013 chemical weapons attack in a Damascus suburb, FP writes. The US blamed the Syrian government for the attack and threatened to launch a military strike in response.

The 1983 CIA memo reveals that US intelligence was aware of Israeli alleged chemical weapons-testing activities since the early 1970s – when they learned from intelligence sources about the existence of chemical weapons testing grounds. It is almost certain that these test areas were located in Negev Desert, in southern Israel, FP wrote.

Israel stepped up its research and development work on chemical weapons following the end of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, according to the CIA document. The war began when Egypt and Syria launched a joint surprise attack against Israel as the nation was celebrating Yom Kippur – the most sacred day in the Jewish calendar. “Israel, finding itself surrounded by frontline Arab states with budding CW capabilities, became increasingly conscious of its vulnerability to chemical attack,” the document said.

“Its sensitivities were galvanized by the capture of large quantities of Soviet CW-related equipment during both the 1967 Arab-Israeli and the 1973 Yom Kippur wars. As a result, Israel undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas.” The report also claims that in January 1976, American intelligence detected “possible tests” of Israeli chemical weapons very likely to have taken place in the Negev Desert.

FP cited a former US Air Force intelligence officer, who told the magazine that the National Security Agency intercepted communications indicating that Israeli air force fighter-bombers carried out a simulated low-level chemical weapons delivery missions at a bombing range in the Negev.

The U.S. Administration was prepared to seriously discuss in the next round of negotiations in the committee for strategic cooperation the possibility of establishing an independent Israeli chemical weapons potential. This was announced by the State Department spokesman 30 July 1990. That was the U.S. Administration's reaction to the proposal by Science and Technology Minister Yuval Ne'eman to build up Israel's chemical weapons in order to neutralize the danger from Iraq and other Arab countries which already have these weapons.

Moscow Radio commentator Dmitriy Prokofyev said that "When the media published Yuval Ne'eman's proposal, I was not taken by surprise and I was not especially concerned. It was made by neither the prime minister nor the defense minister. The issue over whether to develop an Israeli chemical weapons potential was not discussed in the cabinet, and as far as I know, it also has no intention of discussing the subject. In fact, this was an information offensive, nothing more. Furthermore, Minister Yuval represents Tehiya and not the Likud. His views are well known but only represent a relatively limited group of voters.

"By the way, whoever is at all interested in Israeli policy is aware of such tactics: A small party belonging to the coalition raises conditions unacceptable to the large parties so that they will enter into negotiations with it, while in the end they give it something in a completely different field. For the religious parties it was an amendment to the Law of the Return, or the Who is a Jew law. In return for giving up the demand in the Knesset for the amendment, these parties receive places of honor on parliamentary committees and subsidies for yeshivas, etc.

"For Tehiya, the key up to now has been the demand to build more settlements. At present it cannot demand new settlements since Tehiya is a signatory to the coalition agreement, which maintains settlement [words indistinct]. Professor Yuval Ne'eman decided to exert pressure on the government with his proposal to arm the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] with missiles with chemical warheads. That is what I thought, and that is what I believe circles in Israel also thought, but it appears that is not what the United States thinks.

"The declaration by the State Department spokesman is, in my view, very strange, especially since Washington and Moscow are preparing an accord on chemical weapons disarmament. The United States is also removing its chemical weapons from Western Europe. The United States, which is prepared to give up its potential for such weapons for mass destruction, plans to arm its strategic ally with them. Everything is perhaps much simpler.

"When the administration provides legitimacy to the Israeli demand for chemical weapons, or it is perhaps more correct to say, when the administration raises this demand from the level of Israeli internal politics to the national level, only one thing can result: It can serve as an excuse for similar arming by several Arab regimes, including those at war with Israel. It is obvious that in order to neutralize the danger of chemical weapons there is a need for sophisticated and ultramodern measures. That means one cannot make do with the procurement of arms in Spain, India, or Brazil, and therefore the United States is the address. That means larger profits for U.S. firms belonging to the military-industrial complex. As for the Israelis, to be honest, I do not envy them in the current situation. In the Middle East there are too many hot- heads prepared to press the red button at any moment."

There is the well-documented incident in Amman in September 1997, when Israeli Mossad agents attempted the assassination of Khaled Mashall, a Hamas leader, by injecting him with a toxic (chemical, not biological) agent. In the deal to have the captured agents released, Israel had to provide the antidote that saved Mashall's life.

Khaled Mashal is a Palestinian political figure who is best known for his involvement with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic resistance movement. Mashal joined the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth and became involved with Hamas in its early years. He rose through the ranks of the organization and eventually became its leader in 1996, following the assassination of Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. During his tenure as Hamas leader, Mashal played a key role in shaping the organization's political and military strategies. He advocated for armed resistance against Israel and opposed any negotiations or compromise with the Israeli government. His leadership was marked by a series of suicide bombings and other attacks targeting Israeli civilians.

In 1997, Mashal survived an assassination attempt orchestrated by the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad in Amman, Jordan. Mossad agents who had sprayed poison (fentanyl) into the Palestinian’s ear on a street in Amman, Jordan — in retribution for a series of suicide attacks within Israel Several Mossad agents injected him with poison , but they were captured by Jordanian authorities before the poison could take effect. This incident significantly raised Mashal's profile and brought international attention to his cause.

Fentanyl is a synthetic compound that belongs to the opioid family. First opioid substance was isolated in 1806 by Serturner which, as a tribute to the god of sleep Morpheus, was named morphine. Because of Serturner’s strong addiction to this substance that he developed soon after, he managed to describe the consequences of its chronic abuse in great detail. Since the time of their discovery, opioids have come to be an essential drug in everyday practice of medicine, mainly as analgesics. However, due to their strong addictive potential, they have also been used widely as recreational drugs.

Fentanyl is one of the most potent opioids, being a 100 times more potent than morphine. As a strongly lipophilic substance it enters the tissue compartments with ease (especially the central nervous system) and clinically produces an opioid toxidrome with a very characteristic presentation: bradycardia, bradypnea, hypotonia.

In spite of a fairly characteristic clinical presentation of an opioid toxidrome, fentanyl intoxication may be sometimes difficult to diagnose, even for an experienced clinician (Figure 2). The most important steps in the treatment are: securing patient’s airways, administering the antidote—naloxone—and providing ventilation support if needed. Naloxone is administered in fractioned doses. Mashal remained the leader of Hamas until 2017 when he stepped down from the position.

In October 2002, forty Chechen terrorists seized Moscow’s Dubrovka Theater and more than 800 hostages, strung explosives around the theater, and threatened to destroy it and kill the hostages unless Russia agreed to end its military campaign in Chechnya. After several days of unsuccessful negotiations and the Chechens’ threat that it would start killing hostages, Russian security forces pumped an aerosolized combination of two fentanyl analogues into the theater to incapacitate the inhabitants and permit the building to be stormed. The terrorists and approximately 130 of the hostages were killed. Russian medical responders didn’t know either the composition of the gas or how to counteract it.

The United States, with Australia and Switzerland, was at the forefront of an effort to persuade a sufficient number of other states parties to the CWC to agree that the aerosolized use of central nervous system–acting chemicals, like fentanyl and its analogues, is not consistent with the law enforcement exception to the convention.12 The phrases central nervous system–acting agents and aerosolized use were carefully chosen. The former distinguishes these chemicals from riot control agents, which do not act on the central nervous system as their main effect and are explicitly permitted and widely used for law enforcement purposes. The latter term distinguishes the mode of dissemination that is most likely to result in death — aerosolized use — from modes most associated with delivery of the chemicals for legitimate purposes—injection, lozenges, and patches.