JERUSALEM, Feb. 3 – Faced with rising public tensions over the showdown in the Persian Gulf, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu insisted today that Israel is prepared for what he called an unlikely Iraqi attack.

Netanyahu's remarks were intended to soothe jittery Israelis, who have packed gas mask distribution centers and jammed army hot lines with queries about how to protect against biological and chemical attack.

But in a sign that the government is taking the Iraqi threat seriously, the Treasury asked parliament to approve emergency funding of $67 million to buy more gas masks and medicine.

Although Israelis have not panicked at the threat of U.S. airstrikes against Iraq and the possibility of Iraqi retaliation against Israel, there is a sense of peril here as great as any since the 1991 Gulf War.

In response, the government has tried to walk a public relations tightrope, issuing reassurances about Iraq's vastly reduced offensive capabilities and probable behavior while shifting to a higher level of preparedness.

Netanyahu said even his 6-year-old son is concerned.

"Yesterday I came home from work and my son Yair asked me questions. He heard some things and was concerned, like other children," Netanyahu said in an interview from his office on a television talk show.

"I told him, first of all, that the chances were slim, but even if it happened, we have a response. I will look after him and I will look after all of Israel's children."

In 1991, under a deluge of Allied bombs, Saddam Hussein retaliated by launching 39 Scud missiles into Israel. Israel held its fire, deferring to Washington's concern that any military intervention by the Jewish state threatened the anti-Saddam coalition of Arab states cobbled together by the Bush administration.

In the current crisis, Iraq has not threatened Israel. But many Israelis are saying the country should hit Iraq hard if Baghdad attacks, noting there is no longer any solid Arab coalition to preserve.

"I don't believe in turning the other cheek," said Moshe Arens, who was defense minister during the 1991 war. "That's not part of the Israeli or Jewish tradition."

Mordechai Dannan, 47, who owns a flower shop in Jerusalem, agreed with Arens. "There's no reason not to" attack, he said. "Last time they didn't want to destroy the Arab coalition. [But] the Arabs understand one language. They think power."

Many Israelis, including Dannan, say they believe Saddam will back down. But that has not stopped thousands of them from descending on understaffed, under-equipped army gas mask distribution centers in recent days.

Israelis were issued free gas masks during the 1991 war, but the masks must be updated periodically, and children outgrow theirs.