Has chemical warfare erupted in the Middle East?
A spokesman for Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip say they fired a rocket tipped with a chemical warhead at Israel.
“The Al Aqsa Brigades have fired one rocket with a chemical warhead” at southern Israel, Abu Qusai said, according to Reuters.
The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement.
There was no immediate comment on the claim from the Israeli army, except a military spokeswoman saying there was no detection that any such rocket was fired, nor any report of it striking territory in Israel.
Meanwhile, another Brigades member, Abu Ahmed, told Ynet News that Palestinian gunmen were seriously preparing for the incursion into Gaza by Israeli forces.
“In previous invasions the Israeli side absorbed heavy losses in armored personnel carriers and jeeps that blew up, but this time we promise that the losses on the Israeli side will be much larger. We are preparing suicide bombers, car bombs, tunnels, and booby-trapped donkeys. Everything that the Israelis encounter could turn out to be a deathtrap,” he said.
On Monday, WorldNetDaily exclusively reported the threat by the Al Aqsa terror group that it would indeed attack Israelis with chemical and biological weapons the group has developed, according to a pamphlet distributed Sunday by the Brigades.
But sources in the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, speaking on condition of anonymity, said while the group is attempting to acquire biological and chemical agents, their current capabilities in the field still are mostly primitive.
“With the help of Allah, we are pleased to say that we succeeded in developing over 20 different types of biological and chemical weapons, this after a three-year effort,” said the Al Aqsa statement, which was released yesterday and made national headlines here today.
“We say to (Prime Minister Ehud) Olmert and (Defense Minister Amir) Peretz: Your threats of invasion do not frighten us. We will surprise you with new weapons you have not faced until now. As soon as an IDF soldier sets foot on Gazan land, we will respond with a new weapon.”
The group claimed it was working to add chemical and biological agents to missiles that are regularly launched from the Gaza Strip aimed at nearby Jewish communities.
The Al Aqsa Brigades, the declared “resistance wing” of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party, is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shooting attacks and rockets launched from Gaza.
Israeli security officials told WND Al Aqsa’s claim of developing more than 20 kinds of chemical and biological agents is “rhetoric.” They said Israel has information the group in the past has conducted low-level experiments adding some kinds of chemicals, including cyanide, to suicide belts, but that Palestinian groups currently don’t have “serious” chemical or biological capabilities.
They also said Palestinian terror groups currently do not have capabilities to add chemical or biological agents to missiles but that there was a fear some countries, particularly Iran, may be assisting in such efforts.
Sources in the Al Aqsa Brigades told WND the group was experimenting with chemical agents. They claimed they currently have in their weapons arsenal certain agents that can be thrown or shot at civilians in canisters, but they declined to name the specific agents.
One Al Aqsa source said the group’s work in Gaza so far has been limited mostly to Al Aqsa members who are studying chemistry at local universities where biological agents are not available and chemical agents are limited.
They said “outside parties” were helping the group add agents to missiles, but would not comment on the current status of the program or name the outside parties.
Palestinian terror groups in the past have discussed adding chemical and biological agents to suicide bomb belts. Mahmoud Abu Tir, a Hamas legislator, was arrested by Israel in the early 1990s and accused of plotting to poison Israeli water supplies.
In a recent WND interview, Abu Tir refused to confirm or deny he was involved in the plot. In 2002, Israeli security forces foiled a plan by Hamas to poison the soda fountain in a popular Jerusalem cafe.
Editor’s note: Want to go deep inside some of the most dangerous terror organizations on the planet? How about knowing the news before it becomes news? Would you like to tap into some of the most comprehensive information streams from intelligence organizations in the Middle East and from throughout the world and be privy to the latest behind the scenes moves of global decision makers?
Now you can get all this and more sent directly to your e-mail regularly throughout the week FREE, just by being a subscriber to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence newsletter published by the founder of WND. Beginning Monday, July 3, G2 Bulletin will be offering a new feature called “The Galil Report,” an intelligence e-mail newsletter edited by WND’s Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein. The only way to get it is to become a subscriber to Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Christians and Jews unite in common cause
Definitive work on Mideast – available only here!
Previous stories:
