Does an ISIS Affiliate Have Chemical Weapons on Israel’s Syrian Border?

Arab-Israeli Fares Saritah was indicted and sentenced for attempting to join ISIS in Syria last week. (Hillel Maeir/TPS)

The prospect of an ISIS affiliate possessing weapons at the Syrian-Israeli border is no doubt concerning to Israel’s defense establishment.

Israel is currently investigating the possibility that the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, an Islamic State (ISIS)-affiliated group fighting in Syria’s civil war in the southern Golan Heights region, possesses chemical weapons, according to a report by Israel’s Channel 10.

Israel’s concern is largely based on reported chemical weapons attacks by ISIS in eastern Syria and western Iraq, two regions where the border is porous between both countries. However, there is also some concern that the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade might have also been able to get hold of remnants from the Syrian government’s chemical weapons arsenal.

The Syrian government had agreed to relinquish its chemical weapons as part of an arrangement initiated by Russia in September of 2013. In return, the US agreed to abort a potential strike against Syria in response to a chemical weapons attack by regime forces a month earlier.

Graffiti saying “ISIS passed through here” on the walls of a delapidated mosque near the border with Syria on February 3, 2016. (Mendy Hechtman/Flash90)

There is speculation that the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade intends to conduct tests with tactical chemical weapons such as artillery shells with mustard gas.

The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigades continues to concentrate its focus on fighting with the other rebel groups in the surrounding areas, including the Al-Qaeda Syrian affiliate Al-Nusra Front.

However, the prospect of an ISIS affiliate possessing weapons on the Syrian-Israeli border is no doubt concerning to Israel’s defense establishment, which reportedly intends to prepare for the possibility that the group will shift its attention towards Israel.

ISIS has repeatedly threatened to attack Israel. In a menacing video released in October, a masked ISIS fighter speaking fluent Hebrew warns that the terror attacks Israel has suffered from the Palestinians will be “child’s play” compared with what ISIS is planning, and that “not one Jew will remain in Jerusalem or the entire country.

By Jonathan Benedek/TPS

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Source: United with Israel