IDF evacuates wounded Syrian to Haifa hospital

A Syrian citizen was evacuated to an Israeli hospital Saturday evening after receiving preliminary treatment from an IDF medical team in the Golan Heights.

The Syrian man, who was seriously wounded, made his way to the border between Israel and Syria and was treated at the border fence. Israeli troops then requested permission from IDF Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz to have him transferred to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa for further treatment.

Gantz approved the transfer for humanitarian reasons.

Last week a Syrian national, allowed into the country to be treated for wounds suffered in the Syrian civil war, died in a Nahariya hospital from a bullet wound to the back of his head. The victim was one of a larger group of wounded nationals who approached the Syrian-Israel border on the Golan Heights.

Two of them were let into the country for treatment due to the serious nature of their injuries, according to the IDF. The rest of the Syrians who approached the border were treated by an IDF medical team and subsequently returned to Syria.

The IDF stressed that Israel’s treatment of wounded Syrians was on humanitarian grounds and did not reflect a change in official policy refusing entry to Syrian citizens.

A week previously, four Syrians had been treated by IDF medics along the border, and two had been evacuated to Rambam Hospital in Haifa with shrapnel injuries.

In February, for the first time, seven severely wounded Syrians were treated in an Israeli hospital for wounds that they had sustained in clashes with the military. Afterward, the IDF announced plans to build a field hospital near the Israeli-Syrian border in order to treat the expected stream of wounded Syrians seeking medical attention.