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| Military Ambulance that was attacked |
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| UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) troops move through Israel’s Golan Heights before crossing into Syria, August 31.. (photo credit:REUTERS/BAZ RATNER) |
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| Military Ambulance |
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| Meeting between al-Nusra and Israeli army earlier this year |
The feeble Israeli explanation beggars belief. Does Israel provide ‘humanitarian medical assistance’ to fighters from Hamas or Hezbollah? Does it return them to Gaza and Lebanon afterwards? No, what it does do is hold up pregnant Palestinian women at checkpoints until they or their child dies.
Tony Greenstein
lynching
Total of 12 people detained for suspected involvement in ambulance attack that left one Syrian dead and another hurt
Israeli police said Thursday they arrested three more suspects in attacks by members of the Druze minority on military ambulances transporting wounded Syrians to the hospital.In one of two incidents Monday, one Syrian was beaten to death and a second was hurt in an unprecedented outbreak of violence by Druze on the Golan Heights that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “lynching.”
Two soldiers were also injured in the incident while trying to protect the wounded Syrians. Both soldiers were also members of the Druze community, according to a report in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth Thursday.
Syria’s Druze are traditional allies of President Bashar aAssad, and have become caught up in the fighting.
“During the night, police and border guards in the north arrested three more suspects from the Druze community suspected of involvement in the events,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement.
She said a gag order had been imposed on all other details of the investigation.
Police said they carried out a “wave of arrests” Wednesday, with media saying nine people had been detained.
Monday’s deadly incident took place hours after Druze in the neighboring Galilee region of Israel blocked and stoned a military ambulance they suspected was taking Syrian rebels to the hospital.
Both incidents demonstrate the anger felt by Druze towards the rebels and towards the Israelis, whom they suspect of providing medical help to the fighters.
Israel does not rule out the possibility that some of those given medical care are rebels.
Syria has said the two men in the ambulance were members of Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front. Israel says they were civilians.
The Druze are a secretive offshoot of Shiite Islam. Officials say there are 110,000 of them in northern Israel and another 20,000 on the Golan Heights.
New UN report reveals collaboration between Israel and Syrian rebels
NEW YORK – The Syrian ambassador to the UN has long complained of a Zionist conspiracy working with the Syrian rebels to overthrow President Bashar Assad.
Now, a report from the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) reveals that Israel has been working closely with Syrian rebels in the Golan Heights and have kept close contact over the past 18 months. The report was submitted to the UN Security Council at the beginning of the month.
The documents show that Israel has been doing more than simply treating wounded Syrian civilians in hospitals. This and a few past reports have described transfer of unspecified supplies from Israel to the Syrian rebels, and sightings of IDF soldiers meeting with the Syrian opposition east of the green zone, as well as incidents when Israeli soldiers opened up the fence to allow Syrians through who did not appear to be injured.
At one point, a small tent city was erected around 300 meters away from the Israeli sector for about 70 families of Syrian deserters, the report said.
The Syrian army then sent a letter of complaint to UNDOF, warning them to evacuate the camp or it would be considered a target, and claiming that terrorists were using the camp to cross into Israel.
Israel’s health ministry says around 1,000 Syrians have received treatment in Golan hospitals, but maintains that only civilians are treated. The UNDOF report, on the other hand, says they have seen Israelis treating civilians as well as insurgents, including members of al-Qaida and Islamic State.
The report said UNDOF “observed at least 10 wounded persons being transferred by armed members of the opposition from the Bravo side across the cease-fire line.”
UNDOF has monitored the Golan Heights buffer zone between Israel and Syria since 1974. Six countries contributed to the 1,200-strong brigade.
UNDOF peacekeepers have been the target of kidnappings and attacks carried out by al-Qaida on the Syrian side since September, causing hundreds of troops to withdraw to across Israeli border.