Lieberman says Israel will not interve militarily as campaigners call for 'safe zone' in southern Syria
Israeli defense minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of direct responsibility for a horrific chemical attack on Tuesday that has left at least 86 people dead, but said that Israel would not intervene militarily in its northern neighbor's conflict.
In an interview with the Yedioth Ahronoth daily published on Thursday, Lieberman said that the attacks "the murderous chemical weapons attacks on citizens in Idlib province in Syria and on a local hospital were carried out on the direct order and planned by the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, using Syrian planes."
"I say this with 100 percent certainty," he added.
Liberman also claimed that the subsequent bombing of a hospital where victims of the Khan Sheikhun attack were being treated also involved chemical weapons, the first such claim to be made of the attack.
Lieberman did not indicate on what intelligence his claims were based.
Israelis have joined international condemnation of the attack on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun, which has killed at least 72 civilians, including 20 children.
Doctors said victims of the attack showed symptoms consistent with the use of a nerve agent such as sarin -- suspected to have been used by government forces in deadly attacks outside Damascus in 2013.
A grassroots Israeli campaign that has raised nearly $550,000 for aid for Syrian children called on the Israeli government establish a "safe zone" in southern Syria in the wake of the attack.
"With the revelation of the latest horrors that continue to happen literally right next to us, it is time for the government to do something that is Israeli, Zionist and Jewish," the 'Just Beyond Our Border' campaign wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
"We want to the see the government acting as a partner and pushing for a safe zone in [southern Syria] and in other places in the country, in order to allow people who want to get away from the war to seek refuge," Shivi Froman, one of the leaders of the campaign told the Times of Israel on Wednesday.
Since October, over 8,000 Israelis have donated money to the 'Just Beyond Our Border' crowdfunding campaign, which has sent two shipments of aid, including food, clothing, and medicine, to Israel's war-torn northern neighbor.
The aid has been delivered with the help of Israel Flying Aid, and NGO that "specializes in bringing life-saving aid to communities affected by natural disasters and human conflict, especially where local regimes prevent entry from formal international humanitarian organizations," according to its website.
Israel has in recent years taken a more active role in responding to the conflict including transferring Syrian casualties to Israeli medical centers for treatment, the establishing a directorate for offering humanitarian aid, and the approval of a plan to bring 100 orphaned Syrian children to Israel.
In December hundreds of Israelis formed a half a kilometer-long human chain to protest the massacre of civilians in Aleppo.
Lieberman said, however, that Israel would continue its official position of non-interference and will not intervene militarily, calling it the resposibility of the international community.
"Why do we need to take the chestnuts out of the fire? This is the responsibility of the international community...The [rest of] the world should take responsibility instead of just saying it will," he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that he was "shocked and outraged" by "pictures of babies suffocating from a chemical attack."Netanyahu said there was "no, none, no excuse whatsoever for the deliberate attacks on civilians and on children, especially with cruel and outlawed chemical weapons," and called on the international community to "fulfill its obligation from 2013 to fully and finally remove these horrible weapons from Syria."Syria officially relinquished its chemical arsenal and signed the Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013 to avert military action after it was accused of an attack outside Damascus that killed hundreds.But there have been repeated allegations of chemical weapons use since then.If confirmed, the attack would be among the worst incidents of chemical weapons use in Syria's civil war, which has killed over 320,000 people since it began in March 2011.
