Due to lack of funds, Israel to run out of gas masks at end of month

Distribution stations for gas mask kits will be closed next month because all of the supplies will be exhausted by then, Lt.-Col. Lior Gabay, a representative of Israel’s Homefront Command, announced at a meeting of a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Gabay said that only 60 percent of the needed kits have been manufactured because the other 40% were not financed for production. He noted a “lack of coherent multi-year budgeting” as the reason. Gabay said that were it possible to change the situation, the Defense Ministry would not have decided to cancel mass distribution efforts, recently undertaken, because there would be enough to go around for all citizens.

Subcommittee Chairman MK Zeev Bielski (Kadima) said that “the government’s decision to distribute the kits when it was known that there are not enough for all citizens is a clumsy decision.” He also questioned why the government has not set priorities, and why the gas masks were not handed out first in areas with the highest potential of coming under attack. Bielski pointed out that such indecision could turn into a catastrophe, if the police have to be deployed due to citizens clamoring and battling over too few gas masks at distribution stations.

The dearth of gas masks may be particularly concerning following thewarningsby a defense official earlier this month that the Syrian regime may try to transfer its advanced weapons – including chemical weapons – to the Lebanese-based terrorist organization Hezbollah.

Syria has transferred advanced weapons to Hezbollah control in recent years, but the weapons have remained on Syrian soil in accordance with Syrian President Bashar Assad's instructions, to avoid their possible destruction by Israel. With the increasing belief that Assad's rule is expected to end in the near future, some analysts have warned he may decide to transfer arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The delivery could include a large number of long-range missiles, advanced anti-aircraft systems that could threaten Israel Air Force flights in the north, and chemical weapons.

Syria is believed to possess the world's largest stockpile of chemical weapons, including some of the deadliest chemical agents known, such as sarin and the nerve agent VX. Their chemical agents have already been integrated in warheads mounted on advanced Scud missiles.