Israeli head of White Helmet transfer op speaks of emotional rescue

The head of the Israeli military project to assist southern Syria says the eyes of the “White Helmet” rescue workers and their families “twinkled from happiness,” when they discovered they were going to be able to escape Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s brutal regime.

“There’s no doubt that it was an emotional position to be in yesterday, to stand on the border fence and accept the families, mostly women and children,” says the lieutenant colonel, whose name cannot be published for security reasons.

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In a pre-dawn operation on Sunday, the Israeli military’s 210th Bashan Division oversaw the transfer of 422 Syrians from the “White Helmets” rescue organization and their families from the Syrian Golan Heights through Israel to Jordan.

“The families crossed [the fence], at first apprehensively, but once they reached the border, their eyes twinkled from happiness with the knowledge that they’d gotten their lives back. I am happy to be an officer in an army and in a country that is carrying out this mission and expressing the values of humaneness and compassion,” the lieutenant colonel says.

“This is the nature of our work and this is a significant moment like no other,” he adds.

— Judah Ari Gross