Syrian patients recovering in Israeli hospitals are pleading with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to “save the Syrian people.”
The plea comes from wounded Syrians spirited across the northern border and brought to the hospital by the IDF as the savage civil war continues to rage between government troops backing President Bashar al-Assad and fragmented rebel forces.
Currently 16 such patients are being treated at the Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat alone, including three in very serious condition. Dr. Shukri Kassis, head of the hospital’s plastic surgery unit, told the Hebrew news daily Yedioth Achronoth the caseload includes a 12-year-old boy “with amputations in both legs and both arms.
“We make all the possible efforts to save his life,” the surgeon said. “All Syrian patients are pleased and surprised by the treatment they are provided with.”
The boy’s mother corroborated the doctor’s statement, adding that her child was injured when he picked up an object that contained a live grenade. “A friend that was with him was killed instantly,” she added.
Fallout from the conflict has spilled over into neighboring countries — including Israel — more than once. In the case of the Jewish State, it is sometimes not clear whether the “spillover” is truly accidental, however. A roadside bomb wounded four Israeli soldiers patrolling the Golan Heights one week ago, and Israel retaliated with artillery fire on Syrian army positions. It is not known who had planted the bomb in an area where the Syrian military, the Lebanon-based Hizbullah terror group and Syrian rebels fighting Assad all have a presence. Israel returned fire.
Earlier this month, the IDF also attacked Iranian shipments of advanced missiles and other weapons within Syrian territory heading for Tehran-backed Shi’ite Hizbullah terrorists fighting for Assad, an Alawite. Hizbullah has vowed more than once to fire its missiles at Israel.
Shi’ite Iran has also sent its elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards to defend Assad against an increasing number of Sunni rebel forces who include secular opposition forces, radical Islamic groups linked to Al Qaeda and a moderate Islamic coalition supported by Saudi Arabia, among others.