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, Israel is widely believed to possess a substantial arsenal of Nuclear Weapon s and intermediate-range Ballistic Missile s to deliver them. There is also speculation that it may have Chemical and Biological Weapons programs. Israel acceded to the Geneva Protocol on February 20 , 1969 . NUCLEAR WEAPONS The Israeli government refuses to officially confirm or deny that it has a nuclear weapon program, and has an unofficial but rigidly enforced (NPT), the other two being India and Pakistan . {Link without Title} Israel's nuclear weapons program was aided by other countries. After the Suez crisis in 1956 France agreed to help Israel build a nuclear reactor and reprocessing plant at Dimona which used natural uranium moderated by Heavy Water . Plutonium production started in about 1964. Top secret British documents obtained by BBC Newsnight show that Britain made hundreds of secret shipments of restricted materials to Israel in the 1950s and 1960s. These included specialist chemicals for reprocessing and samples of fissile material - uranium 235 in 1959 and plutonium in 1966 - as well as highly enriched Lithium 6 which is used to boost atom bombs and fuel hydrogen bombs. The investigation also showed that Britain shipped 20 tons of heavy water directly to Israel in 1959 and 1960 to start up the Dimona reactor. The transaction was made through a Norwegian front company called Noratom which took a 2% commission on the transaction. Britain was challenged about the heavy water deal at the IAEA after it was exposed on Newsnight in 2005. British Foreign Minister Kim Howells hid behind the Noratom contract and claimed this was a sale to Norway. But a former British intelligence officer who investigated the deal at the time confirmed that this was really a sale to Israel and the Noratom contract was just a charade. Foreign Office finally admitted in March 2006 that Britain knew the destination was Israel all along. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/4791360.stm The first public revelation of Israel's nuclear capability (as opposed to development programme) came in the London -based '' Sunday Times '' on October 5 , 1986 , which printed information provided by Mordechai Vanunu , formerly employed at the Negev Nuclear Research Center , a facility located in the Negev Desert south of Dimona. For publication of state secrets, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for Treason and Espionage . Although there had been much speculation prior to Vanunu's revelations that the Dimona site was creating nuclear weapons, Vanunu's information indicated that Israel had also built Thermonuclear Weapon s. {Link without Title} In , while "Oslo" refers to the Oslo Peace Accords ). The "nuclear option" may refer to a nuclear weapon or to the nuclear reactor in Dimona , which Israel claims is used for scientific research. However, no scientific report from the Dimona nuclear facility has ever appeared in a peer reviewed scientific journal. Peres, in his capacity as the Director General of the Ministry of Defense in the early 1950s, was responsible for building Israel's nuclear capability. {Link without Title} According to the Nuclear Threat Initiative , based on Vanunu's information, Israel has approximately 100-200 nuclear explosive devices and a Jericho Missile delivery system. A United States Defense Intelligence Agency report (leaked and published in the book " Rumsfeld's War " by journalist Richard Scarborough in 2004 ) puts the number of weapons at 82. U.S. intelligence sources in the late 1990s estimated 75-130 {Link without Title} . The difference might lie in the amount of material Israel has on store versus assembled weapons. Israel has operated three modern German-built , 2003 , The Observer reported that the United States had equipped Israeli submarines with nuclear tipped Harpoon missiles. {Link without Title} No known nuclear weapons test has been conducted within Israel, although the , a Vela Satellite may have detected a 3 Kiloton oceanic Nuclear Explosion near to South Africa , accompanied by underwater acoustic and Ionospheric effects which may have been a joint nuclear test between Israel and South Africa (see Vela Incident ). CHEMICAL WEAPONS Israel has signed but not ratified the . Professor Marcus Klingberg , deputy director of the institute, was sentenced in 1983 to 18 years in prison for being a Soviet spy, a matter so sensitive that it was kept secret for a decade. {Link without Title} 190 liters of Dimethyl Methylphosphonate , a CWC Schedule 2 Chemical used in the synthesis of Sarin nerve gas, was discovered in the cargo of El Al Flight 1862 after it crashed in 1992 en-route to Tel Aviv . Israel insisted the material was non-toxic, was to have been used to test filters that protect against chemical weapons, and that it had been clearly listed on the cargo manifest in accordance with international regulations. The shipment was from a U.S. chemical plant to the IIBR under a U.S. Department Of Commerce licence. {Link without Title} In 1993 , the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment WMD proliferation assessment recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities. BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS Israel is not a signatory to the Biological And Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC). Israel is alleged to have a possible Biological Weapons facility at the Israel Institute For Biological Research in Ness Ziona . Professor Ernst David Bergmann started the Israeli chemical/biological weapons program in April 1948. {Link without Title} EXTERNAL LINKS
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