Israel planned to detonate nuclear device in Sinai during Six-Day War

The Secret Interview Which Was Banned for 17 Years

Exactly 50 years ago, on the eve of the Six Day War, Israel was preparing to explode a nuclear device in Sinai, in the event that a war broke out and did not go as planned:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4971018,00.html

Last night the the New York Times published the contents of a series of interviews that I, in collaboration with Dr. Avner Cohen, conducted with Brig. Gen, Yitzhak Ya’akov, but was barred from publishing it by the military censor.

The plan for Operation Samson called for two helicopters to fly into Sinai, to deposit the device in a wadi. It was to be exploded as a warning to Nasser that if he did not stop the war, another bomb would be exploded in a population center.

After giving me that interview, Yitzhak Ya’akov was prosecuted, and I was harshly interrogated and threatened with prosecution for aggravated espionage. Ya’akov was under arrest for two years, have been convicted for a technical offense, and after his release he remained in Israel until he died in 2013.

 

Image Credits: ynet