Gas Masks Suffocate 4 in Israel
Three women and a 3-year-old Arab girl apparently suffocated in their gas masks today during an Iraqi missile strike, Israel Radio said.
Air raid sirens alerted the country’s 4.7 million Israelis to don gas masks for fear of a chemical weapons strike and seek protection in rooms sealed against poison gases.
The girl apparently suffocated because a plastic seal over the air-intake valve was not removed, said Khalid Dzuki, deputy secretary of her hometown, Taibe.
The radio reported that two elderly women were found dead wearing gas masks in their sealed rooms in Tel Aviv suburbs. They also died because they had not removed the plastic seal.
Another elderly woman died of respiratory and heart problems she suffered while wearing the mask, the radio said.
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