Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israel to Almost Completely Stop Gas Mask Production

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will halt almost all of its gas mask production due to a decline in the threat of a gas or chemical attack.

The decision, according to Haaretz, comes a year after the Defense Ministry decided to reduce production and stop distributing gas masks to Israel’s civilian population. Now, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon has also decided to halt gas mask production for the Israel Defense Forces. First responders will still receive gas masks.

Israel restarted mass distribution of gas masks last year in response to the threat of a chemical weapons attack from Syria. But Syria’s agreement later in the year to dispose of its chemical weapons stock sharply reduced that threat. Syria completed the disposal process in June. When Israel stopped distributing masks to civilians, 60 percent of Israelis were estimated to have gas masks.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.