JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel, responding to a U.N. official's warning that Baghdad has enough biological material to "blow away Tel Aviv", said on Wednesday an Iraqi attack would draw strong Israeli retaliation. "Surely Iraq must know that it will not pay to attack Israel and that Israel has all the means necessary to make such an attack very, very dangerous for Iraq -- much more dangerous for Iraq than it is for Israel," David Bar-Illan, a top aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Reuters. Asked about reported comments on Tuesday by chief U.N. weapons inspector Richard Butler that Iraq had sufficient biological agents such as anthrax or botulin toxin to strike a death blow against the population of Tel Aviv, Bar-Illan said: "We are not underestimating Iraqi capabilities and we know that it is still, despite the inspection and despite what happened during the war in '91, we know that Iraq is capable of threatening Israel with a very serious threat." Iraq fired 39 Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War. Israel did not retaliate, bowing to U.S. pressure to hold its fire in the interests of keeping Arab forces within a U.S.-led coalition that ousted the Iraqi army from Kuwait. In comments on Wednesday, Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Silvan Shalom cautioned against panic as U.S. pressure on Iraq intensified. But he recommended that Israelis still without gas mask kits first issued in 1991 obtain them now.