"Israel fully supports [US] President [Donald] Trump’s decision and hopes that this message of resolve in the face of the Assad regime’s horrific actions will resonate not only in Damascus, but in Tehran, Pyongyang and elsewhere," the Friday statement says, as quoted by The Times of Israel.
On Thursday night, the United States launched over 50 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Syrian military airfield in Ash Sha’irat, located about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city of Homs. Trump said the attack was a response to the alleged chemical weapon use in Syria's Idlib on Tuesday, which Washington blames on the Syrian government.
"In both word and action, President Trump sent a strong and clear message today that the use and spread of chemical weapons will not be tolerated," Netanyahu stressed in his Friday statement.
On Tuesday, an alleged chemical weapon attack in Syria’s militant-held Idlib province claimed the lives of some 80 people and inflicted harm on an additional 200 civilians. The Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces blamed the Syrian government troops for the attack, while Damascus has refuted these allegations.
Following a chemical weapon attack in Syria’s East Ghouta in 2013, when hundreds of people were killed, Syria joined the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. This was the result of an agreement between Russia and the United States on the destruction of chemical weapons in the country under the control of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and stopped the US military intervention in Syria.
However, in June 2016, the US State Department released a report stating that Syria continued to use chemical substances against citizens, and could have retained a chemical weapons stockpile. UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo has said that UN and OPCW experts still cannot confirm the complete destruction of chemical weapon production facilities in Syria.
