https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10 ... 22.2122448
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/202 ... fed64d0000
https://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-con ... 3cohen.pdf
Key takeaways:
- Violation of the Geneva convention
- "Poisoning the Well" antisemitic canard
- Initially denied / Later admitted
- Directly linked to top Israeli leaders including Ben Gurion
Key quotes:
Israel firmly denied the Egyptian allegations of bacteriological warfare, calling them a “wicked libel.” The Israeli government admitted only that the four soldiers were involved in an intelligence operation aimed at monitoring military movements and assessing the morale of the Arab population.
Avner Cohen - Israel and Chemical/Biological Weapons: History, Deterrence, and Arms Control
The Yishuv’s decision to use the bacteriological weapons was taken at the highest level of
the government and military and was, indeed, steered by these officers, with Ben-Gurion’s
authorization, through the campaign. And while not knowing the campaign’s full extent, the
Arab side – or, at least, the Egyptian government – understood, from late May 1948, that this
was no local affair launched by junior officers
Benny Morris & Benjamin Z. Kedar - ‘Cast thy bread’: Israeli biological warfare during
the 1948 War