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In 2016 and 2017, White Helmets-Syrian volunteers who risked their lives to rescue civilians trapped in rubble following aerial attacks, barrel bombings and chemical weapons attacks have been among the favorites of the Nobel Peace Prize. A collection of bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, and students nicknamed for their protective hats, they saved more than one hundred thousand people in Syria's vicious civil war. Their rescues produced iconic images: a little boy covered in dust and blood, sitting in silent shock on an orange ambulance seat; the triumphant rescue of a "baby miracle", only ten days old, fired from under huge concrete slabs after sixteen hours of digging. The main lifeguard of the baby was himself killed in an airstrike allegedly carried out by government forces two years later. Up to now, more than two hundred White Helmets have been killed while rescuing them from others. Their motto is "Saving a life is saving the whole humanity". In 2017, a film about them won the Oscar for Best Documentary.
During the weekend, the White Helmets themselves had to be saved. The escape of hundreds of rescuers marks a strategic and psychological turning point in the seven-year war. In a brutal offensive launched last month, the Syrian army, backed by the Russian Air Force, took over the southwestern territory, on the border with Israel and Jordan, which was the cradle of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad. The first demonstrations began in the city of Deraa, after schoolchildren were arrested there for painting anti-government graffiti. As protests spread throughout the country, Assad unleashed his army. The uprising has turned into a civil war that is now estimated to have killed close to half a million people.
This month, Dara'a finally fell to Assad's guns. The armed rebels accepted conditions of capitulation that allowed them either to reconcile with the government or evacuate to the northern province of Idlib, on the border with Turkey. However, the Russians would have been reluctant to allow the civilian members of the White Helmets – who have been funded by Western governments – to find security. Syria and Russia have falsely accused them of being terrorists and jihadist supporters because they work in areas of the opposition where there are few or no government services. On its website, the group claims to "save people from all sides of the conflict". In previous surrender agreements, the White Helmets were reportedly arrested by government forces and sent to the notorious prisons of Syria
. , which include men and women, fled with their families to the Israeli border. Syria and Israel are still technically at war, and there is no exit or formal entry on either side. The white helmets were trapped. As their fate became more and more precarious, Western governments banded together to know how to save them; they were even discussed at the NATO Summit in Brussels this month. The United States, Canada, and European countries have appealed to Israel and Jordan for help. For seven years, Israel has formally avoided intervention in the civil war in Syria. His air strikes targeted Iranian and Hezbollah deployments in Syria that threatened Israel in accordance with a long-standing policy that existed before the civil war. Jordan, which has already hosted more than 600,000 Syrian refugees, has closed its borders to other people fleeing the new offensive.
Last week, Israel and Jordan signed, however, after the Trump administration calls, the Europeans. and Canada. The Israeli government has agreed to evacuate the white helmets and transfer them to Jordan. The Jordanian government agreed to take a total of eight hundred – briefly. The evacuation started late at night on Saturday. Communicating the plan with the failed White Helmets group was difficult. The operation, which called to cross the border three times, nearly failed when [ISISfighters from the region moved to a location, the Washington Post reported, cutting off an exit and leaving some members of the group isolated. With the aid of searchlights on the Israeli side, about half of the white helmets, exhausted and fearful, eventually crossed the Israeli border on foot. Israeli security forces have picked up some one hundred white helmets and some three hundred members of their families. They were transported by bus on the Golan Heights up to Jordan.
"The lives of these people, who saved lives, were now in danger," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "I have therefore authorized their transfer via Israel to other countries as an important humanitarian gesture." As part of the agreement, the White Helmets will be resettled in Britain, Canada and Germany after being approved in Jordan, a process that should
White helmets should not be resettled in the United States. United, despite the long-standing support of the US government to Syrian first responders. In the past, the United States provided up to one-third of the group's funding. Department of State officials have welcomed or invited its members to Washington as recently as this year. President Trump personally supported the evacuation mission. On the other hand, the Department of Foreign Affairs of Canada stated that it felt a "deep moral responsibility towards these courageous and altruistic people". The British government said it felt compelled to take on white helmets because of the group's "brave and altruistic work" to save the Syrians "on all sides of the conflict." German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said "Humanity dictates that many of these brave rescuers should now find protection and refuge, some of them in Germany. "
The latest Assad offensive does not mean the end of the White Helmets group, which is officially known as the Syrian Civil Defense, but the pressure on the limbs that remain in the pockets that n & # 39; The White Helmets have claimed some 3400 members, making the group the largest movement of civil society out of the control of the government. during the war.He also repaired basic services, such as electricity, disrupted by the fighting.
The Assad regime, supported by massive military support from Russia and the United States. Iran, has restored control of most of Syria.The last big hold-outs are pockets to the east, occupied by fighters ISIS and the province of. Idlib, north, on the Turkish border. For the White Helmets, the most immediate danger is nearly 400 members of the group and their relatives, who did not leave the south-west during the Israeli evacuation. Their fate remains uncertain and even more precarious.
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