by Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
At the request of U.S., Europe, Israel evacuates some 800 members of Syria's White Helmets civil defense group and their families to Jordan due to "immediate threat" to their lives
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Members of the White
Helmets civil defense group during a rescue operation in Syria
Photo: AP
The
Israeli military recently extracted some 800 members of Syria's White
Helmets civil defense group and their families, evacuating them to
Jordan from southwest Syria. The unprecedented operation was carried out
at the request of the United States and some of Israel's European
allies.
A Russian-backed Syrian army offensive is
underway in the area, which placed the Syrian aid workers directly in
harm's way, local media reported.
The IDF Spokesperson's Unit said Sunday
that "following an Israeli government directive, and at the request of
the United States and additional European countries, the IDF recently
completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil
organization and their families.
"The civilians were evacuated from the war
zone in Southern Syria due to an immediate threat to their lives. The
transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel is an exceptional
humanitarian gesture."
The IDF said that the group was transferred
to an unnamed neighboring country and that Israel "continues to
maintain a non-intervention policy regarding the Syrian conflict and
continues to hold the Syrian regime accountable for all activities in
Syrian territory."
Israeli media identified the Syrians as
belonging to the White Helmets organization. Officially called the
Syrian Civil Defense but known by their distinctive white helmets, the
group has operated a rescue service in rebel-held parts of Syria.
According to media reports, the aid workers were transported to the Jordanian border by bus.
Jordan's official Petra news agency said on
its website that the kingdom "authorized the United Nations to organize
the passage of about 800 Syrian citizens through Jordan for
resettlement in Western countries."
The agency identified the Syrians as civil
defense workers who fled areas controlled by the Syrian opposition after
attacks there by the Syrian army.
Petra said they would remain in a closed
area in Jordan and that Britain, Germany and Canada had agreed to
resettle them within three months.
Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Mohammad al-Kayed confirmed the reports and said the Syrians would
remain in Jordan for three months.
"The request was approved based on purely humanitarian reasons," he said.
U.S. officials had said they were
finalizing plans to evacuate several hundred Syrian civil defense
workers and their families from southwest Syria as Russian-backed
government forces closed in on Quneitra province.
The officials said the White Helmets, who
have enjoyed backing from the United States and other Western nations
for years, were likely to be targeted by Syrian forces as they retook
control of the southwest. Evacuation plans were accelerated after last
week's NATO summit in Brussels.
Since the Syrian government offensive began
in June, the area along the frontier with the Golan Heights has been
the safest in the southwestern region, attracting hundreds of displaced
people because it is along the disengagement line with Israel,
demarcated in 1974.
The Syrian government is unlikely to fire there or carry out airstrikes for fear of an Israeli response.
The White Helmets typically have operated
in opposition-held areas across Syria, places where government services
are almost nonexistent, risking their lives to save hundreds of civilian
lives during relentless government airstrikes and bombardments.
Over the last month, Syrian government
forces aided by Russian air power have swept through southwestern Syria
to consolidate government control over this strategic corner of the
country that straddles the border with Jordan and the frontier with the
Israeli Golan Heights.
With its new advances, government forces
are, for the first time since the civil war began in 2011, retaking this
territory from the rebels and restoring their positions along the
disengagement line on the frontier with Israel that is part of a
cease-fire agreement reached in 1974 between the two countries formally
still at war.
The offensive has restored Syrian
government control over a swathe of the southwest, strategic territory
at the borders with Jordan and Israel.
Lilach Shoval, News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/2018/07/22/in-exceptional-humanitarian-gesture-idf-extracts-800-aid-workers-from-syria/
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