Hamas terrorists were carrying instructions on how to make chemical weapons when they launched their horrifying October 7 attack on Israeli border villages, Israel’s President has claimed.
Isaac Herzog said that documents found on the bodies of dead fighters in kibbutz Be’eri were ‘official Al Qaeda material’ which showed how to build a weapon with cyanide.
‘We are dealing with ISIS, al Qaeda and Hamas,’ Mr Herzog told Sky News. The documents are said to have been sourced from a known 2003 al Qaeda manual.
‘This is how shocking the situation is where we’re looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide.’
The president’s office later said the documents were found on a USB stick on one dead Hamas fighter in the kibbutz – where around 20 per cent of the 1,100 residents are thought to have been slaughtered or kidnapped.
Members of Army rescue and ZAKA crews search for bodies after the Hamas attack on Kibbutz Be’eri
Israeli warplanes continued to strike targets across Gaza throughout the weekend and into Monday morning
Armed men from the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, participate in a military parade in Gaza City. Palestine
There is no suggestion Hamas terrorists were carrying the components needed to make chemical weapons when they invaded Israel.
The claims made by Mr Herzog have not been independently verified, but the documents’ contents are said to have contained credible ingredients for the weapons.
‘Al Qaeda spent a lot of time and effort developing a chemical weapon based on cyanide,’ Hamish de Bretton Gordon, former head of the UK military’s Chemical, Biological and Nuclear Weapons regiment, told Sky.
‘Cyanide is a blood agent and AQ developed a chemical weapon using these types of chemicals.’
During his interview, Mr Herzog defended his country’s retaliatory bombing of Gaza, which many have argued has a disproportionately affected civilians.
‘It’s not true. We have realistic objectives,’ he said. ‘We say we want to wipe out the military infrastructure of Hamas. We’ve said it clearly. We are cautious.
‘Already two weeks have gone by, and we haven’t operated on the ground because we are cautious.
‘I cry for the lives of Palestinians but first and foremost I cry for the lives of my nation.’
Isaac Herzog said that documents found on the bodies of dead fighters in kibbutz Be’eri were ‘official Al Qaeda material’
Members of the Ezz-Al Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, parade on a truck with rockets in a street in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip
Israel has released what it claims is a ‘hostage manual’ given to Hamas fighters by their leaders before their cross-border assault on October 7
Hamas terrorists stormed kibbutzim and a desert festival in southern Israel on October 7, in what many Israelis have described as their 9/11.
The horrific attack, which included Hamas burning down homes and murdering entire families, saw 1,400 Israelis killed and over 220 taken hostage.
Israel last week released what it said was a ‘hostage manual’ found on the bodies of dead Hamas terrorists.
The eight-page guides included instructions for the deadly raid such as ‘kill the problematic ones’ and ‘create chaos’.
Among the group’s most harrowing raids was on the Be’eri Kibbutz, where a British mother and her teenage daughters were murdered.
Israeli Major General Itai Veruv told how the Hamas terrorists had thrown a hand grenade towards 15 girls and teenagers who were desperately trying to hide from them. All were found dead in that single room.
The Hamas gunmen also set fire to several homes here in a sick attempt to force the families out so that they could gun them down as soon as they reached their gardens.
In response to Hamas’s horrific coordinated attacks on Israeli soil, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on the terror group, with sweeping airstrikes on the Gaza Strip in the days and weeks since.
Over 4,600 people have been killed and over 14,000 wounded in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes since October 7, according to the Hamas-run health authority in the territory.
A rocket is launched from the coastal Gaza strip towards Israel by militants of the Ezz Al-Din Al Qassam militia, the military wing of Hamas movement
As Israel says it is stepping up its bombing campaign on Gaza, the Israeli Defense Forces have published what they claim is proof of Hamas rocket launch sites nestled among mosques, schools and nurseries in the enclave.
The IDF today shared satellite images that they say show launch pits dug into the ground right next to the civilian structures – something Israel says backs up their claims that Hamas is using the Palestinian people as human shields.
Israeli warplanes continued to strike targets across Gaza throughout the weekend and into Monday morning, as well as two airports in Syria, according to local media.
Meanwhile some 95 people are said to have been killed in the occupied West Bank, where a mosque allegedly used by terrorists was bombed by Israeli forces, killing at least two.