Israeli Urges Distribution of Gas Masks : Mideast: The suggestion follows a threat by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to use nerve gas against Israel.

An aide to Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir urged the government today to issue a gas mask to every Israeli after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to use binary nerve gas against Israel.

In Iraq, Hussein’s ruling Baath Party held rallies today in Baghdad and major provincial cities in support of his statement Monday. Iraqi officials insisted that the threat was meant to deter Israeli plans to attack.

Hussein’s speech dominated the Israeli news.

Michael Dekel, an aide to Shamir and former deputy defense minister, said he urged the prime minister to order distribution of gas masks, now stored in warehouses.

“I simply want Prime Minister Shamir to move faster so that every Israeli citizen will feel safe in his home,” Dekel said. “We need to prepare the civilian population, not only with practice, but with equipment in the case of a surprise attack.”

An army spokesman confirmed a newspaper report that the Home Guard, in charge of civilian defense, has prepared instruction videotapes for broadcast on national television on how to use gas masks.

Foreign Minister Moshe Arens told Israel radio that Hussein’s past use of chemical weapons concerned him.

“Unconventional weapons in the hands of a man such as Hussein, who has used chemical weapons in a massive way against Iran and the Kurds, should be a warning not only to every Israeli but to the world,” Arens said.

Iraq has been accused of using chemical weapons during its 1980-88 war with Iran, and against its Kurdish minority, an allegation Iraqi officials deny.

On Monday, Hussein denied Iraq was developing nuclear weapons but said Iraq possessed binary chemical weapons and would use them if Israel attacked.

In a related development, Israel today displayed its rocket and technological prowess, launching the Ofek-2 communications satellite, the second in a series of experimental spacecraft.

The satellite is widely viewed in the Arab world as a spy craft that will allow Israel to have immediate intelligence on Arab military moves.

Israel Space Agency head Yuvaal Neeman denied that the satellite had any military purpose or that the long-rumored launch was in any way a response to Hussein’s threat to use nerve gas.

“We don’t send satellites because of threats,” he said.

Neeman described the new satellite as experimental and similar to the Ofek-1 launched aboard a gray, three-stage rocket Sept. 19, 1988.

Analysts have said Israel needed its own satellite so as not to be dependent on the United States for satellite information.