Herzog: Hamas had plans to deploy chemical weapons

President Isaac Herzog said Hamas terrorists who massacred more than 1,400 Israelis and injured thousands also planned to use chemical substances to kill civilians during the Oct. 7 attacks.

Documents on a flash drive found on the body of a Hamas terrorist included instructions on how to prepare cyanide and use it against noncombatants, Herzog said in a Sunday interview with Britain’s Sky News. The highly poisonous gas was used by the Nazis at extermination camps during the Holocaust in World War II.

“This is material that was found on the body of one of those sadistic villains. It’s Al-Qaeda material, official Al-Qaeda material,” Herzog said in the interview. The instructions also included detailed procedures for preparing a cyanide dispersal device, he said, although there were no details on what kind of device.

“We are dealing with ISIS, al-Qaida and Hamas,” Herzog said. “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 material appeared to have been taken from a manual compiled by Al-Qaida in 2003, he said in a CNN interview last week, which he said underscores the growing worldwide threat terrorist groups present to the West.

“This booklet is an operating manual, how to enter citizens’ yards, kibbutz, city, moshav, how to break in there. And first – and what do you do when you find the citizens? You torture them. This is the booklet that says exactly how to torture them, how to kidnap them,” Herzog said in the interview.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry recently informed the nation’s embassies around the world that there was information on “Hamas’ intention to use chemical weapons” in a classified cable, according to the news site Axios. The cable also reportedly instructed ambassadors to share the file with their host governments privately. “This discovery indicates that Hamas intended to use chemical warfare agents as part of its series of terrorist operations against the civilian population,” Axios reported.

Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 Israelis and wounded more than 5,400 in a massive offensive launched from the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, which included the firing of thousands of rockets at Israel and the infiltration of the Jewish state by terrorist forces.

As of Sunday, 302 people remained hospitalized, of whom 43 were seriously wounded, 172 moderately wounded and 87 lightly wounded, according to Health Ministry data.

“The story is not Israel versus the Palestinians or Judaism versus Islam,” Herzog said. “The story is about where humanity should stand, are we with the good or the evil.”

Israel Hayom is owned by the Adelson family, including Dr. Miriam Adelson, which also owns the Review-Journal.