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Two weeks ago, Mohammed left with his eight-month-old pregnant wife and their infant son to flee heavy Russian bombing near his hometown in the Daraa region of Syria, torn apart by war. But as they headed for a nearby town, air strikes followed them.
It was then that they decided to go further west, to the Israeli border, joining thousands of cities in southwestern Syria, seeking refuge from Syrian army attacks supported by the Russian air force. of the civil war in Syria.
"I will be the first to enter Israel when they open the border," said Mohammed, a professor in his early twenties from Daara Province.
Mohammed was talking to Skype reporters from the village of Al-Briqa about half a mile from the Israeli border. Families live in tents and caravan homes after fleeing Assad's forces.
>> Assad returns to the Israeli-Syrian border. The big question is who comes with him | Analysis
Daraa, where the revolt against Assad began in 2011, and the neighboring province of Quneitra are attacked, forming part of the badaults of Syrian President Bashar Assad as he attempts to recover the remaining areas held by the rebels in the hope that it can insurrection in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
But despite the influx of Syrian civilians seeking protection near or along the Israeli and Jordanian borders – an estimated 300,000 people are on the move – Israeli policy is firm: yes to help humanitarian and medical, but not refugees.
Due to the recent increase in Syrian refugees, Israel has increased the humanitarian supplies that it provides. About 10,000 to 15,000 Syrians are camped near the Israeli side of the border, Lieutenant-Colonel Tomer Koller, a doctor from the Golan Division, told reporters on the Israeli side of the border.
Civilians flee to the demilitarized buffer zone that was created in the 1974 Separation of Forces Agreement after the Yom Kippur War.
Muhammad's statement that he would be happy to seek refuge in Israel would have been shocking a few years ago. Syria and Israel are long-time enemies between whom tensions have erupted along the border in recent years.
Treatment of the wounded
But Muhammad's feelings indicate a possible rapprochement with the Syrian population, especially those in neighboring Syrian south-west, where rumor has spread about the high-level medical care that Israel has given to the Syrian wounded in the last five years.
Israel started providing emergency medical care about two years after the war in Syria. Since 2012, about 3,500 people have been treated, according to Israeli officials.
Most of the wounded are being treated at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, a coastal city about 5 kilometers from the Lebanese border. Most patients arrive with gunshot wounds or shells, according to Eyal Sala, a hospital surgeon.
Since Thursday, a week ago, 13 Syrian wounded have arrived for treatment, all in serious condition, according to Hagai Einav, the spokesman for the hospital. The hospital is currently treating 40 Syrians, he said.
According to Dr. Koller, the doctor of the Golan Division, some of the children that Israel has treated in the past two weeks have arrived without the supervision of an adult; he says that they fear that their loved ones have been killed in air strikes and ground badaults.
Sela, the surgeon, describes the complicated reconstructive surgery that he and his teams performed, including on the jaws and cheeks, sometimes as a result of a sniper shot.
"And what we see here is only the tip of the iceberg," he said. "We see Syrians who survived, came in a van and were sent to clinics in Jordan and Turkey, but they prefer to come here." We were told that they had been told that they wanted to save a leg or an arm, their best chance was to come and see us.
According to Sela, some patients arrive in Israel three or four weeks after being injured and treated for the first time, arriving with bacterial infections that he and other doctors had never seen before.
Sela says that patients in Syria may have received antibiotics incorrectly in the past and developed resistance when they really needed this medicine.
The gratitude of patients
Hani, a Syrian man of about 20 years old from a town near Damascus, has been at the medical center for two years. His face was badly injured when he was shot dead by a Syrian army soldier, forcing him to undergo several plastic surgery operations, he said.
"I am so grateful to the Israeli army and to all those in Israel who helped me to get treatment," he told reporters at the press. hospital this week.
Beside him was Nawras, also in his twenties, who lost both his hands during an air raid in June. his face and one eye were also injured. He was transferred to Israel from a field hospital in Syria after being informed that it was the only place where he could get the treatment he needed.
Nawras and Hani both stated that they had grown up on stories of Israel as an enemy nation. "I have heard of past wounded who have been treated here that Israel treats patients well," Hani said.
Part of Hani's trip was actually on horseback. He was controlled by the Israeli army to make sure he was unarmed, was treated by an army medical team and sent to the army. hospital.
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