Netanyahu Calls On World Powers To Remove All Chemical Weapons From Syria

JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called on world powers to intervene in the Syrian civil war and remove chemical weapons from the country according to its “obligation” from 2013.

Posting on his Facebook page, Netanyahu wrote:

When I saw pictures of babies suffocating from a chemical attack in Syria, I was shocked and outraged. There’s no, none, no excuse whatsoever for the deliberate attacks on civilians and on children, especially with cruel and outlawed chemical weapons. I call on the international community to fulfill its obligation from 2013 to fully and finally remove these horrible weapons from Syria.

The prime minister was speaking after an attack on the city of Idlib where, according to reports, at least 100 people were killed and some 400 wounded. A later aerial attack targeted the hospital to which many of the wounded were taken.

Eyewitnesses described symptoms indicating that the attacking jets dropped bombs containing sarin gas against the anti-Assad rebels in Idlib.

Many of the dead were said to be children.

Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said that the attack on the Syrian town of Idlib was “a stain on humanity” and called on world powers to intervene immediately.

Invoking the memory of the Holocaust, Rivlin said in a statement:

We, as a people who survived the greatest of atrocities and rose from the ashes to be a strong and secure nation, we will do all we can to continue to aid the survivors of the horrors in Syria. We know all too well how dangerous silence can be, and we cannot remain mute.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said Israel should take action and added that it had the resources to do so.

“Genocide is ongoing in Syria,” Kahlon said. “The slaughter directed against children demands uncompromising action by the world for the destruction of the Assad regime.”

“Israel, the state of the Jewish people, must take moral responsibility and open its gates to treat children who are victims of genocide. Neither resources nor moral determination are lacking for this,” he added.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party and Ayelet Shaked, who serves as justice minister and is also a member of Jewish Home, both called on US President Donald Trump to intervene in Syria.

Bennett shared on his Facebook page a harrowing picture showing several bodies of children aged less than 10, and wrote: “Children are choking to death. The world MUST ACT against the chemical massacre in Syria. I call upon President Trump to lead this effort.”

According to Israel Radio, Shaked said that the leadership of the Jewish people should act to awaken the world’s nations. “We Jews have the duty to at least yell to the nations of the world, and especially to President Trump, to do something and stop the horrible massacre in Syria, which has been ongoing for six years with conventional and unconventional weapons,” she stated.

The minister was speaking at a conference in Jerusalem.