Israel and weapons of mass destruction
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Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is believed to possess nuclear weapons. Israel is also suspected to possess chemical and biological weapons. Israel is the only UN member not party to the any of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention, and the Chemical Weapons Convention, although it signed the latter in 1993.
Israel's stockpile is estimated at 90 to 400 nuclear weapons. It is speculated to operate a nuclear triad of delivery options: by over 200 F-16 and F-15I fighters, by submarine-launched cruise missiles aboard five Dolphin-class submarines, and by 25 to 50 Jericho medium and intercontinental range ballistic missiles. Its first deliverable nuclear weapon is estimated to have been completed in late 1966 or early 1967, which would make it the sixth nuclear-armed country.
Israel maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity, choosing not to formally deny or admit the extent of its nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare capabilities; it is the only nuclear-armed country to do so. Israeli officials have instead historically repeated "Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East". Israel interprets "introduce" to mean it will not test or formally acknowledge its nuclear arsenal. Nonetheless, Israel is suspected of carrying out a 1979 covert nuclear test responsible for the Vela incident, as part of its collaboration with the South African nuclear weapons program. Western governments, including the United States, similarly do not acknowledge the Israeli capacity. Israeli officials, including prime ministers, have made statements that seemed to imply that Israel possesses nuclear weapons, including discussions of use in the Gaza war.
Citing security threats, Israel rejects international calls to accede to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or to participate in negotiations of a Middle East weapons of mass destruction free zone. Israel's Begin Doctrine describes its pre-emptive strikes against nuclear facilities of other Middle Eastern countries, bombing an Iraqi reactor in 1981, and a Syrian reactor in 2007. Israel has extensively targeted Iran's nuclear program, using malware, assassinations, and airstrikes on reactors, enrichment sites, and other nuclear facilities during their 2025 war.
Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), despite United Nations General Assembly pressure to do so. It argues that nuclear controls cannot be implemented in isolation of other security issues and that only following the establishment of peaceful relations of all countries in the region could controls be introduced via negotiation of "a mutually and effectively verifiable regime that [would] establish the Middle East as a zone free of chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, as well as ballistic missiles."
Israel is generally reported as having undeclared chemical warfare capabilities, including nerve agents, and an offensive biological warfare program. The primary suspected facility is the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), which also engages in defensive work. Israel carried out biological warfare in Operation Cast Thy Bread, dispersing the pathogen for typhoid against Palestinian civilian populations during the 1948 Palestine war. In 1992, an Israeli cargo aircraft, carrying a shipment bound for IIBR, crashed into an apartment complex in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The health effects in survivors, and eventual revelations of the cargo manifest, showed at least three chemical precursors used in the production the nerve agents sarin and soman. Israel's uses of white phosphorus and tear gas have also been alleged to violate the Chemical Weapons Convention.