Monday, July 29, 2013

Toddler sustained shrapnel wounds in conflict; some 100 Syrians evacuated to Israeli hospitals in recent months

By Michal Shmulovich and Lazar Berman July 27, 2013, 10:48 am 8

Illustrative photo: A Syrian victim who suffered an alleged chemical attack at Khan al-Assal village -- according to SANA -- receives treatment by doctors at a hospital in Aleppo, Syria, Tuesday, March 19. (photo credit: AP/SANA)

A three-year-old girl injured in the bloody Syrian war was transferred to Israel for treatment Saturday morning. Together with her mother, the toddler was evacuated to Ziv Medical Center in Safed, where she was treated for shrapnel wounds. She was admitted to the pediatric unit of the hospital and was in serious condition.

Earlier this week, four Syrians were brought to the same hospital in Safed for treatment for injuries sustained in the Syrian civil war.

One of the patients was a 15-year-old girl who lost her foot during the fighting, Israel Radio reported.

Approximately 100 Syrians have been brought to Israel for treatment over the last several months. According to the UN, at least 93,000 people have been killed in the bloody conflict.

Around 7,000 children under the age of 15 have been killed. Half of the 1.7 million Syrian refugees are children, and inside the war-ravaged country, more than 3 million children are in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon in early June confirmed for the first time that Israel is operating a field hospital on the Syrian border. He said the IDF was transferring severely wounded Syrian nationals to Israeli hospitals for treatment. Initial reports of an IDF field hospital in the Golan Heights surfaced in February.

“Our policy is to help in humanitarian cases, and to that end we are operating a field hospital along the Syrian border,” Ya’alon told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. “In cases where there are badly wounded, we transfer them to Israeli hospitals. We have no intention of opening refugee camps.”

The IDF has kept secret the identity and number of Syrian nationals treated in Israel.

AP contributed to this report.