TEL AVIV – Israel’s Minister of the Interior on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to officially request an emergency session at the United Nations Security Council to discuss the deepening humanitarian crisis in Syria, saying, “as Jews, we cannot ignore these atrocities.”
“During the Holocaust six million Jews were killed and the world was silent. We, as Jews, cannot remain silent in light of the horrors that have occurred for almost six years in Syria,” said Aryeh Deri.
“The increasing massacre in Aleppo and the murder of babies, children, women and the elderly obligates us as Jews — a people that has known the horrors of the Holocaust and unbearable massacres — to raise our voices and cry out,” he added.
Deri, who is chair of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, added that he asked the prime minister to convene an emergency session at the Security Council. The Prime Minister’s Office did not comment on whether Netanyahu would do so.
More than 300,000 Syrians have been killed since the civil war started over five years ago. Millions more have fled their homes. The situation in Aleppo has worsened over recent days, with pro-Assad forces summarily executing civilians on the streets, according to the UN.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Major-General Igor Konashenkov said on Monday that the Syrian government has regained control of 96 percent of Aleppo’s territory. The fall of Aleppo could mark a victory in President Bashar al-Assad’s campaign to regain control of the embattled country.
Apart from establishing a field hospital in the Golan Heights, Israel has for the most part maintained a policy of neutrality regarding the war, interfering only when threats arise from fighting along its border with Syria.
Jerusalem has, however, made it clear that any cross-border fire is the responsibility of the Assad regime, regardless of whether it came from pro-regime forces or rebel groups.
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