An Israeli human rights group has petitioned the country's High Court to order authorities to supply gas masks to all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the event of a US war on Iraq.
The Israeli army, in charge of gas mask distribution, has said it would issue 60,000 masks to Palestinians who live in West Bank areas designated by interim peace accords as under total Israeli control.
But Physicians for Human Rights, a non-partisan organisation set up in 1988, said in a statement that Israel effectively controlled all Palestinian areas following its reoccupation last June of West Bank cities in the wake of suicide attacks.
Calling for gas masks to be distributed free of charge "to every resident of the occupied territories", the group said it was joined in its petition by the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Some 3.5 Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza.
The army has been handing out gas masks to all Israelis since the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War, when Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in attacks that caused heavy damage in residential areas but only one death.
Israel has stepped up preparations for possible missile attack by Iraq, although Israeli officials have said the probability of a Scud strike is low.