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 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the Biological Weapons Convention, or 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.

Terminology

The collective acronym used in Israel for "atomic, biological, and chemical" weapons is the Hebrew acronym: Aleph–Bet–Kaph ( or for ).

Nuclear weapons

It is believed that Israel possessed an operational nuclear weapons capability by 1967, with the mass production of nuclear warheads occurring immediately after the Six-Day War. Experts estimated the stockpile of Israeli nuclear weapons range from 60 to as many as 400.Brower, Kenneth S., “A Propensity for Conflict: Potential Scenarios and Outcomes of War in the Middle East,” Jane's Intelligence Review, Special Report no. 14, (February 1997), 14-15. It is unknown if Israel's reported thermonuclear weapons are in the megaton range. Israel is also reported to possess a wide range of different systems, including neutron bombs, tactical nuclear weapons, and suitcase nukes.Hersh, Seymour M. The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy. New York: Random House, 1991. p.220 Israel is believed to manufacture its nuclear weapons at the Negev Nuclear Research Center.

In 2021, Palestine made a declaration to the UN under the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons that it had never hosted nuclear weapons to its knowledge, and saying Israel, as the occupying power, bore responsibility for any unlawful nuclear activities in the occupied Palestinian territories.

On 5 November 2023, amid the Gaza war, Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu stated that the use of atomic weapons in the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip could be "one of the possibilities". He was neither a member the security cabinet nor of the war cabinet, and was subsequently suspended from cabinet meetings.

Nuclear weapons delivery

Nuclear weapons delivery mechanisms include Jericho 3 missiles, with a range of 4,800 km to 6,500 km (though a 2004 source estimated its range at up to 11,500 km), and which are believed to provide a second-strike option, as well as regional coverage from road mobile Jericho 2 IRBMs. Israel's nuclear-capable ballistic missiles are believed to be buried so far underground that they would survive a nuclear attack. Additionally, Israel is believed to have an offshore nuclear second-strike capability, using submarine-launched nuclear-capable cruise missiles, which can be launched from the Israeli Navy's Dolphin-class submarines. The Israeli Air Force has F-15I and F-16I Sufa fighter aircraft which are capable of delivering tactical and strategic nuclear weapons at long distances using conformal fuel tanks and supported by their aerial refueling fleet of modified Boeing 707s.

In 2006, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to acknowledge that Israel had nuclear weapons when he stated on German TV that Iran was "aspiring to have nuclear weapons as America, France, Israel, Russia". This admission was in contrast to the long-running Israeli government policy of deliberate ambiguity on whether it has nuclear weapons. The policy held that Israel would "not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons in the Middle East." Former International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradei regarded Israel as a state possessing nuclear weapons. Much of what is known about Israel's nuclear program comes from revelations in 1986 by Mordechai Vanunu, a technician at the Negev Nuclear Research Center who served an 18-year prison sentence as a result. Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, but supports establishment of a Middle East Zone free of weapons of mass destruction.

Threats during the Gaza war

During the Gaza war, Israeli and US officials have made statements about nuclear weapons and Gaza characterized as genocidal intent. Israeli security analysts have also argued these statements undermine Israeli nuclear ambiguity.

On 9 October 2023, Likud member of the Knesset Tally Gotliv made a Twitter post calling for a nuclear-armed Jericho missile "strategic alert" and the use of a "doomsday weapon". She continued that "Only an explosion that shakes the Middle East will restore this country’s dignity, strength and security!".

Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu responded "That's one way." to an interviewer asking if Israel should drop "some kind of atomic bomb" on Gaza "to kill everyone”. His remarks were criticized by the Israeli opposition, a number of Arab countries, Iran, and China. Palestinian foreign minister Riyad al-Maliki filed a complaint with the International Atomic Energy Agency arguing the statement was "an official recognition that Israel possesses nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction". Eliyahu was ostensibly suspended from the Israeli cabinet by Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but continued to participate in meetings by phone. Eliyahu's father Shmuel Eliyahu, the Chief Rabbi of the city of Safed, repeated the statement: "A nuclear bomb on Gaza is indeed an option!"

US Republican congressmen Lindsey Graham, Tim Walberg, and Randy Fine were criticized for referring to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to support the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Nuclear weapons scholar Vincent Intondi argued that US and Israeli officials' statements are liable to prosecution under the Genocide Convention's incitement clause, but the convention obligates countries to prosecute incitement within their own borders.

Chemical weapons Israel has signed but not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).United Nations Treaty Collection. Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction . Accessed January 14, 2009. A 1983 CIA report concluded Israel likely has "persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents". The Israel Institute for Biological Research and a facility near Dimona are suspected Israeli chemical weapons sites.

In 1993, the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment weapons of mass destruction proliferation assessment recorded Israel as a country generally reported as having undeclared offensive chemical warfare capabilities. Former US deputy assistant secretary of defense responsible for chemical and biological defense Dr. Bill Richardson said in 1998 "I have no doubt that Israel has worked on both chemical and biological offensive things for a long time... There's no doubt they've had stuff for years".

Possible nerve agents In 1983 a report by the CIA stated that Israel, after "finding itself surrounded by frontline Arab states with budding CW capabilities, became increasingly conscious of its vulnerability to chemical attack... undertook a program of chemical warfare preparations in both offensive and protective areas... several indicators lead us to believe that they have available to them at least persistent and nonpersistent nerve agents, a mustard agent, and several riot-control agents matched with suitable delivery systems... possible tests were detected in 1976. In late 1982 a probable CW nerve agent production facility and a storage facility were identified at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert. Other CW agent production is believed to exist within a well-developed Israeli chemical industry".

There are also speculations that a chemical weapons program might be located at the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR). in Ness Ziona.

1992 El Al aircraft crash

In 1992, a cargo aircraft bound for Tel Aviv crashed into an apartment complex in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The subsequent 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.