On May 2, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced that the United States was rethinking whether to arm Syrian rebels, the New York Times reported that the United States may be considering airstrikes on Syria and Israeli jets bombed targets in Syria on May 2 and May 5.

It was less than three weeks ago [April 17], when Hagel and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey testified to the Senate Armed Services Committee that US President Barack Obama had not asked for military options in Syria, with Dempsey adding that he had rethought his recommendation last year to arm the Syrian rebels because he was no longer sure he “could clearly identify the right people” within the opposition to supply arms.

The US' turnaround and the Israeli attack, which has been in the works since Obama’s visit to Israel last month, according to Ben Caspit, follow a US intelligence assessment made public on April 25, based on evidence from Great Britain, France and Israel, and made by US intelligence agencies with “varying degrees of confidence” of “small scale” chemical weapons use, based upon “physiological samples” where “the chain of custody is not clear.”

There were also four key events which took place on April 30: the meeting of the Arab League delegation with US Secretary of State John Kerry about a revived Arab Peace Initiative, a fiery speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, an Israeli attack on Gaza and Iran’s statement that chemical weapons use is a red line in Syria.