While Washington, most Europeans, and the United Nations hail the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, Israelis suspect that delivery trucks there are carrying more sinister cargo than food, water, and medicine — including, perhaps, gear that could be used in chemical warfare.

This alert could — and, hopefully, will — prove to be premature. The Hebrew website Davar, though, is taking note of video clips and photos that were taken inside Gaza after humanitarian trucks entered the strip over the weekend. In it, the website writes, crates can be seen carrying the logo of a company that manufactures defensive suits used in chemical warfare.  

Britain-based ChemDefend manufactures hazmat suits, gas masks, and other defenses against chemical agents. According to its website, “within the range of ChemDefend® coveralls are models which conform to EN14126:2003 barrier to infective agents and EN1073-2:2002 barrier to radioactive contaminated particles.”

Such equipment could “be used by the terrorists in a future land war in Gaza,” including in chemical attacks, Davar’s Uriel Levy writes. Following an assault with deadly chemical agents, the terrorist organizations could blame Israel for waging chemical warfare, he writes. President Assad of Syria , along with his Russian patrons, accused rebels of chemical attacks that were launched by the Syrian army. 

President Herzog of Israel displayed documents detailing preparations for cyanide attacks which were taken from a USB drive found on the body of a Hamas terrorist who took part in the October 7 assault on Israel. The documents included “detailed instructions on creating chemical weapons,” based on al Qaeda websites that contained “precise instructions for preparing a device for dispersing cyanide agents,” Mr. Herzog said.

The Israel Defense Forces spokesman office told Davar that following an American request, the aid convoys that entered Gaza Sunday were allowed to carry just food, water, and medicine that would not be used by Hamas. “Any other material unauthorized by Israel would be intercepted,” the IDF said.

No doubt the reason for this is that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to distribute aid of any kind inside Gaza without it getting into the hands of Hamas. This is no doubt one reason why Israel was initially opposed to any deliveries of aid to the Hamas-controlled strip.

Under American pressure, though, Israel agreed to allow trucks into Gaza through its Egyptian border at Rafah. Aid convoys entered the strip over the weekend after two women with American citizenship were freed. Some 222 hostages remain in Gaza. As yet, the Red Cross is denied access to them.