Israel helping build clinics inside Syria

ISRAEL HAS revealed the full scale of its humanitarian response to the war in Syria.

Last week the IDF held briefing explaining it had delivered 360 tonnes of food and 450,000 litres of fuel to the country, and treated over 4,000 injured people, including 900 children.

The army also released a video titled “Operation Good Neighbour” showing Israeli troops providing Syrian refugees in the Golan Heights with food, baby formula, clothes, medical treatments and shelter.

The commander of Operation Good Neighbour, a lieutenant colonel who cannot be named for security reasons, told the JC: “We are helping civilians by giving them aid, from flour and sugar to insulin and diesel.”

In response to accusations that Israel has an ulterior motive in helping Syrians, he said: “We are doing this as a moral duty of Israel, as Jews and to make our border safer.”

He continued: “After being treated and cared for by us, they understand that Israel is the only country helping them. We hope that this will make our border safer and that the Syrian people will not let terrorists come and attack us at the border.”

As well as treating Syrians in Israeli hospitals, there are plans to build two clinics inside Syria that will be staffed by local doctors and workers from NGOs.

The lieutenant colonel said: “We have helped to build a hospital for pregnant women by providing health care equipment and beds for babies.”

He added: “We are also helping to build a clinic between the Israeli alpha line and the Syrian border so that civilians can access it both from our side and the other side of the fence.”

The clinic will be built by NGOs using building materials from Israel.

He also stressed that the army would not enter Syria but “let civilians enter and use the clinic”.

More than half a million people have been killed since the Syrian Civil War began six years ago. It is believed that half of the population has been displaced, including five million refugees.