The Israeli government says it found evidence that Hamas terrorists carried instructions on making chemical weapons.
"This is how shocking the situation is where we're looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide," Israeli president Isaac Herzog told Sky News.
Israel said instructions created by al Qaeda to build a cyanide dispersion weapon were found on the body of a Hamas terrorist from this month's attack on Israel.
"It's al Qaeda material. Official al Qaeda material. We are dealing with ISIS, al Qaeda, and Hamas," Herzog said.
Herzog's comments came after Axios initially reported on Israel's discovery of the instructions:
Axios reported on Saturday that the Israeli Foreign Ministry's weapons of mass destruction non-proliferation department sent a classified cable to Israeli embassies in dozens of capitals worldwide, including Washington, late last week under the headline: "Hamas intention of using chemical weapons."
The authenticity of the Hamas file could not be independently verified by Axios, but Israeli officials have previously said they wouldn't share information with allies if they didn't think it was authentic and reliable.
It is not clear from the file whether Hamas had any serious or operational plan for using makeshift chemical weapons or whether the group had attempted to produce them.