The Agriculture Ministry suspects that the bird flu that hit Israel last week originated in the Gaza Strip and that the Palestinian Authority attempted to conceal the outbreak.

"We suspect that the avian flu outbreak in Israel originated in the Palestinian Authority," Agriculture Minister Ze'ev Boim (Kadima) said Thursday, while touring the sites of the outbreak in southern Israel. "There is reason to suspect that the Palestinian Authority tried to conceal the outbreak from Israel."

Initial tests conducted on chicken carcasses from Gaza this week indicated the existence of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu there. The virus was found in coops built on the ruins of the former settlement of Netzarim, in the central Strip.

Meanwhile, a Jordanian newspaper said Friday that birds on its border with Israel were found to be infected with avian flu. Israeli and Jordanian authorities are working together to keep the virus from spreading, Israel Radio reported Friday.