Injured Syrian transferred to Israeli hospital

A Syrian man was allowed into Israel for medical treatment Tuesday morning after being injured during ongoing battles between rebels and forces loyal to Damascus near the border with the Golan Heights.

Doctors at Sieff Hospital in Safed operated on the man, who was shot in the abdomen, removing pieces of shrapnel from all over his body.

It was not known if the man is a civilian or was fighting alongside rebel forces or with the Syrian army.

Israel has let several injured fighters into the country for medical treatment over the last several months, but has classified the measures as humanitarian actions that do not change Jerusalem’s closed-border policy with Syria. Two Syrian nationals who had entered the country earlier in recent weeks were discharged from the hospital and returned to Syria over the weekend.

Soldiers stationed along the border have also administered first aid to wounded Syrians.

Opposition forces in Syria have waged a two-year struggle to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, with over 70,000 dead and over a million displaced in the civil war.