Revealed: Israel scrapped plan to bomb Syrian crematoria - Yoav Limor

by Yoav Limor

U.S. intelligence report suggesting Syrian regime is cremating prisoners' bodies prompts Israel to weigh strike: "A nation that lost millions of its people in crematoria cannot stand idly by when this is happening to another people," official says

The Sednaya Military Prison near Damascus, Syria  

Photo: GoogleEarth 

American intelligence reports suggesting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime was cremating the bodies of hundreds of prisoners in a facility near Damascus prompted Israel to examine the possibility of bombing the area, but the plan was eventually shelved over the defense establishment's concerns that the move would lead to a rapid security escalation on the northern border.

The existence of the Syrian crematoria was revealed in May, when the U.S. State Department presented reports saying that crematoria had been built near the Sednaya Military Prison, north of Damascus, with the aim of disposing of evidence proving the Assad regime had been committing mass torture and murder of dissidents.

The American report included satellite images of the crematoria, alongside information suggesting they had been operating for several years.

In February, three months before the State Department's report, human rights watchdog Amnesty International reported that the Syrian government executed some 13,000 prisoners in mass hangings and had systematically tortured thousands of prisoners at Sednaya during the civil war, a scale amounting to war crimes under international law.

The Americans claimed that the construction of the crematoriums sought to cover up the atrocities committed by the Assad regime, which also included the frequent use of chemical weapons against civilians.

Some sites in Syria have evidence of mass graves where dissidents were buried, but it is unknown exactly how many prisoners were cremated so that the Syrian regime would not be blamed for their murder.

As expected, Assad's regime denied the allegations, saying the U.S. was "concocting a Hollywood story" to justify its desire to intervene in the Syrian civil war. It was clear, however, that Syria was very concerned the evidence would prompt an American strike on the crematoria, to illustrate to the international community that Washington has clear red lines.

The U.S. eventually refrained from striking the facilities and sufficed with calling on Russia, the Syrian regime's biggest supporter, to prevent Assad's atrocities.

Still, Israel Hayom learned recently that Israel had also considered bombing the crematoria, to demonstrate that humanity would not tolerate such horrors.

"A nation that lost millions of its people in crematoria cannot stand idly by when this is happening to another people and just a few dozen kilometers from our border, especially when the world remains silent, as it did 70 years ago," a senior official who participated in the deliberation, said.

The debate in Israel saw many defense officials weigh in on the issue as it was clearly a moral rather than a national security deliberation. The idea was eventually shelved over Israel's desire not to compromise its relations with the U.S. and Russia, as well as over the defense establishment's concerns that the move would trigger a rapid security escalation on the northern border.

Since the Syrian civil war erupted in March 2011, Israel has maintained a strict policy of not intervening in the conflict. But the Jewish state has gone to great lengths to try and alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn country: It is consistently transferring food and medical aid to those affected by the war, and thousands of wounded Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals.

Yoav Limor

Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2017/10/08/revealed-israel-scrapped-plan-to-bomb-syrian-crematoria/

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