Israel rescues Syrian volunteers stranded frontier area



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JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Sunday, February 1, 2011, at 12:30 pm

Jordan confirmed that 800 Syrian citizens have entered its territory to be resettled in Western countries. The volunteers, known as White Helmets, had been stranded along the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights following the latest Syrian government offensive in southwestern Syria.

The Israeli military said the operation was an "exceptional humanitarian gesture" done at the request of the United States and its European allies due to "an immediate threat to the (Syrians') lives."

The military said its actions did not reflect a change to
Israel 's non-intervention policy in Syria's war, now in its eight year, where all the warring parties are considered hostile.

The Syrians would remain in Jordan, Germany and Canada, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Mohammed al-Kayed said.

"The request was approved based on pure humanitarian reasons," he added.

Raed Saleh, head of the Syrian Civil Defense and the White Helmets are also known, and have been evacuated from a dangerous, besieged area of ​​Jordan. He did not elaborate on the numbers of those evacuated.

The Associated Press first reported on Friday that US officials were finalizing plans to evacuate several hundred Syrian civil defense workers and their families from the south of the country, along the Golan Heights frontier.

The officials said the White Helmets, who have enjoyed backing from the United States and other Western nations for years, were likely to be targeted by Syrian forces as they retook control of the southwest. Evacuation plans were accelerated after last week's NATO summit in Brussels.

Since the Syrian government began offensive in the Golan Heights, the region along the border into the south of the country.
Israel demarcated in 1974 after a war.
Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967. Thousands of civilians had taken refuge near the frontier to escape the offensive government.

The Syrian government is unlikely to fire or airstrikes for fear of an Israeli response.

Meanwhile, Syrian forces kept up their offensive, pounding the southern tip of the southwestern region where the Islamic State-affiliated group still holds territory.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the bombing (200 airstrikes since Saturday) displaced 20,000 civilians while an estimated 10,000 remain trapped in the area controlled by the militants, with their fate unknown.

The White Helmets typically operated in opposition-held areas across Syria, places where government services are almost non-existent, voluntarily risking their lives to save hundreds of years of civil life during relentless government airstrikes and bombings.

The White Helmets and the White Helmets as "agents" of foreign powers and the issue of staging missions or chemical attacks.

Syrian state TV Al-Ikhbariya reported the Israeli evacuation of the White Helmets, calling it a "scandal" and saying "terrorist groups" now have "zero options."

Over the last month, Syrian government forces have taken over the position of Syria and the United States of America to consolidate their position in the region of Jordan and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

With its new advances, government forces are restoring their territory and restoring their positions along the line of disengagement in the Golan Heights.

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