Of course, the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry was the first to get on the bandwagon. From Tasnim (Iran):
Dozens of Palestinians, including children, suffered from suffocation late Thursday after inhaling "poisonous gases" released by Israeli forces during incursions into the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian health official said.The absurd story bounced around Arabic media.
"The victims, who had been taken to hospitals in northern and southern Gaza Strip, had reported inhaling white poisonous gas emanating from shells fired by the Israeli artillery on northern and southern Gaza Strip," Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qodra said in a statement.
He called on Gazans to use nylon coats to protect their bodies and also firmly seal their doors and windows with wet pieces of clothing, Anadolu news agency reported.
Later, Haaretz reported:
Palestinian Health Ministry says reports that the IDF is using poison gas are false, and are meant to confuse civilians.(Confirmed here, and it was Gaza's MOH, not the PA. H/t Bob K)
But the rumor then morphed to a new level - thanks to a "humanitarian."
Dr. Haitham Abu Said is the International Human Rights Commission ambassador to the Middle East.
Abu Said accused Israel of using sarin during the initial hours of the ground operation in Gaza. (Arabic media are calling him a "UN official," although he isn't.)
This adds to the previous rumors of Israel using "cancer inducing weapons" in Gaza.
It's amazing that will all these horrible and high-tech weapons, Israel can't come close to killing as many Arabs as those in countries like Syria and Iraq and Lebanon and Egypt and Libya. Maybe they should take lessons in mass murder from their neighbors.