It’s heartwarming to see what is happening in Safed’s Ziv hospital these days. Hundreds of Israelis who heard through the media about the medical treatment it is providing to Syrian civilians and fighters alike, wounded in that country’s civil war, have been appearing in the wards to hand out clothing, food, sweets and flowers. Some are even coming just to cheer up the wounded, who find themselves all alone in the hospital, in a foreign country.
About 300 ailing and wounded Syrians have shown up in hospitals across northern Israel in the past year for lifesaving care. Just last week (Nov. 3) the first Syrian baby was born in Israel. The child’s mother made her way to the border between the two countries while she was in labor. An Israeli Defense Forces patrol picked her up and brought her to the maternity ward in Ziv, where she gave birth to her firstborn son.
“I don’t feel like I’m in an enemy country,” she later told reporters. She explained that she decided to try and give birth in Israel, because there has been no midwife at the local hospital in Syria since the civil war began. That is just one of the medical services that have been sorely lacking there. Like hundreds of other Syrians before her, she has since learned that the face of the enemy is very different from what she imagined. It is very human. People smile and get excited when they hear the cries of her newborn infant.
The injured Syrians are afraid to return home, not only because of the bloody war still going on in their country, or the dearth of basic commodities and the economic crisis there. They are also worried that they will come under attack once word gets out that they were treated in Israel. The have good cause for alarm as well. Just last week, Sudqi al-Makaath, a resident of Majdal Shams, showed up at the hospital. Makaath had been released from prison a year ago after serving 27 years for crimes against state security and collaboration with Syria. He photographed the faces of the wounded being treated in the hospital and posted the pictures to his Facebook page, labeling them “traitors” and “collaborators with the Zionist entity.” To one photo showing a Syrian opposition fighter, he even added the caption, “This is a photograph of a terrorist from Daraa who was taken for medical treatment to occupied Safed.”
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