JERUSALEM (AFP) Israel Tuesday began distributing millions of protection kits against biochemical warfare, Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai announced, stressing the campaign was not linked to any imminent threat. "We have equipped ourselves with millions of protection kits against biological or chemical warfare, and a massive distribution programme for the population started today," Vilnai told army radio.
"Every family in Israel can receive these kits at home and be instructed on how to use them by Israeli postal workers, at an average cost of 25 shekels (five dollars), or pick them up free of charge at post office counters."
The distribution came as an aide to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, quoted by the Islamic republic's Fars news agency on Tuesday, warned that his country would hit Tel Aviv with missiles if it came under attack.
"If the enemy takes its chance and fires a missile towards Iran, the dust from an Iranian missile strike will rise in the heart of Tel Aviv even before the dust from the enemy attack settles" in Iran, said cleric Mojtaba Zolnoor.
Iran has regularly boasted of its missile capability, saying it has an arsenal which can strike Israel, which along with Washington has not ruled out a military strike to halt Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
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