In late June 2006, just days before Israel’s June 27 military intervention in Gaza, members of the secular Palestinian militant organization al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed to have manufactured a variety of chemical and biological weapons (CBW) and threatened to use these weapons against Israel, if Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) attacked Gaza. [1] Western experts, however, are doubtful of al-Aqsa’s sensational claims. [2]

On June 25, 2006, in anticipation of a major Israeli incursion into Gaza following the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants earlier that day, members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades announced that the group had developed CBW capabilities, declaring: “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.” [3] A member of the group further stated to the Palestinian Rammattan News Agency that “We tell [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and [Israeli Defense Minister] Amir Peretz: Your threats to invade Gaza do not intimidate us. You sent us a warning of killings and invasions, and we respond by saying that we will surprise you with new weapons you haven’t seen before, the moment the first soldier sets his foot on Gaza soil.” [4]

Abu Qusay, a reported spokesman for the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, reiterated the threat, telling al-Quds al-Arabi, a London-based pan-Arabist on-line and print daily read throughout the Middle East, that the group would use rockets to deliver the substances to targets in Israel in retaliation for “Israel’s aggression.” [5] He added, “If death is coming to the Palestinians from the Israeli occupation, then we will send death back to their people. We tell the Israelis that the chemical materials in our possession will cause extreme damage to your lives.” [6]

The announcement that al-Aqsa had acquired chemical and biological weapons coincided with Israeli threats to invade Gaza, following the abduction of its soldier. [7] The Israeli government, blaming the Hamas-led Palestinian government and holding both Palestinian President Mahmood Abbas and Hamas responsible for the abduction, threatened to respond with great force. [8] Prime Minister Olmert announced that he had notified Israeli military commanders to be prepared for a “a prolonged and extensive military operation in order to strike the terror organizations and commanders” within Gaza. [9]

As the Israeli troops and tanks lined up outside the border with Gaza awaiting orders to invade, Palestinian militants began to issue warnings describing the resistance that the Israeli Defense Forces would face, including the use of unconventional weapons. [10] Abu Ahmed, another spokesmen for al-Aqsa stated, “We are preparing suicide bombers, car bombs, tunnels, and booby-trapped donkeys. Everything that the Israelis encounter could turn into a deathtrap….Northern Gaza will turn into one large cemetery for the invaders.” [11] However, unlike the other al-Aqsa spokesman Abu Qusay, Abu Ahmed did not mention chemical and biological weapons, but added, “I don’t want to address what we have or don’t have. The coming hours will do the talking.” [12]

Many experts doubt al-Aqsa’s sensational claims. For example, Michael Stebbins, Director of the Bio-security Project at the Federation of American Scientists stated, “It is impossible to manufacture that many chemical and biological weapons in three years without an army of scientists and laboratories.…They would need a very sophisticated program with very skilled workers,” which would have made the program “easily identifiable.” [13] On the other hand, Stebbins admitted that some toxins can be produced fairly easily with common household materials and added that, “It is possible, though not probable, that al-Aqsa may have managed to acquire certain chemicals.” [14] Israeli government officials treated the allegation as a serious threat, stating that “Israel must take the right measures.” [15]

On June 29, Abu Qusay announced that “al-Aqsa Brigades have fired one rocket with a ‘chemical warhead’ ” into Israel. [16] The Israeli military, however, stated that it had no information indicating that the alleged rocket had carried chemical agents or that it had actually hit Israel. [17] Since Abu Qusay’s June 29 statement, moreover, Israel has not reported the use of chemical or biological equipped rockets by al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

Al-Aqsa’s statements are not surprising, however. Apparently, these proclamations were a vain attempt by the group to deter Israel from carrying out incursions into Gaza by claiming to possess a CBW capability. It is also plausible that in the past three years some members of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades may have actually acquired CBW production manuals from Jihadi websites and may have attempted to manufacture these agents. As reported previously in WMD Insights, the Internet has seen a flurry of WMD manuals posted on various militant and Jihadi websites. (See “Moroccan Authorities Foil Terrorist Cell Pursuing Chemical Weapons” in the February 2006 issue, http://wmdinsights.com/I2/AF1_Moroccan.htm, and “Special Report: Manual for Producing Chemical Weapon to be Used in New York Subway Plot Available on Al-Qaeda Websites Since Late 2005” in the July-August 2006 issue, http://wmdinsights.com/I7/I7_ME1_SP_ManualFor.htm.) It is possible that some members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades may have manufactured what they believed were CBW agents, even if in actuality, they produced only crude and ineffective mixtures of precursors.

While to date there has been no evidence to corroborate al-Aqsa Martyr Brigades’ proclamation of CBW possession, its attempt to deter Israel with the threat to use such weapons is noteworthy because it represents an important escalation in rhetoric and suggests that if the group does not currently possess the ability to mount a CBW attack, it may well seek such a capability in the future.

Sammy Salama, Gina Cabrera-Farraj - Monterey Institute Center for Nonproliferation Studies