Hundreds of rescuers still stuck in south Syria after evacuation via Israel

Several hundred Syrian rescuers remain trapped in the country’s south with no escape from approaching regime troops, two of them say, a day after a secret evacuation saved many of their colleagues.

Israel yesterday helped around 400 opposition-linked White Helmet rescue workers and their families flee a neighboring pocket of southwestern Syria as government forces bore down on them.

They were then taken to Jordan, and will be resettled to Western nations including France, Britain, Germany, and Canada.

But a similar number remain trapped in southern Syria.

“We’re calling on concerned parties to help us leave,” says Cesar, a 23-year-old White Helmets worker in the southern city of Daraa.

He estimates some 400 fellow rescuers were still in the provinces of Daraa, bordering Jordan, and Quneitra, next to the buffer zone abutting the Golan Heights.

Cesar says he learned of the operation a few days ago “by chance,” but when he contacted White Helmets leadership, they told him it was too late to register to leave.

“They set another meeting for today on the subject, but we found out a little while ago that the efforts failed. The fact that some White Helmets members left and some stayed hurt us more than it helped us,” he tells AFP. “Yesterday’s evacuation through Israel only made things worse. We’re afraid of the regime and Russia’s reactions.”

— AFP