Renewed hostilities in the Middle East are drawing significant international concern to Israel's widely acknowledged but officially undeclared nuclear arsenal An expert from a leading non-proliferation group has warned of the catastrophic consequences should the weapons be used in the escalating conflict. Alicia Sanders-Zakre, a policy and research coordinator at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), described the situation as "really dangerous," stating that as long as a country possesses a nuclear arsenal, a risk remains that the weapons could be used intentionally or by accident
According to Sanders-Zakre, it is "widely acknowledged among experts that Israel is a nuclear-armed country," a status that has never been formally confirmed by Israel or its key ally, the United States This long-standing policy of nuclear ambiguity creates a layer of strategic uncertainty in a region already fraught with tension. Concerns over the arsenal's potential deployment were heightened in 2023 after an Israeli lawmaker, Revital Gotliv, called for the use of a "doomsday weapon" in the Gaza conflict, a statement widely interpreted as a reference to Israel's Jericho ballistic missile capabilities
The lack of official acknowledgment or transparency surrounding the arsenal complicates diplomatic and military calculations for all actors in the region. As active military conflicts persist, the presence of these weapons introduces a high-stakes variable, increasing the potential for miscalculation and raising fears of a devastating escalation
Mohsin Rana
