BEIRUT / AMMAN // When a rebel was shot and severely wounded during a new offensive on Syria’s southern front, his colleagues knew the only hope of saving his life was to get him to Israel.
The rebels called their contact on the Syrian side of the frontier, a man known as Abu Nidal, who had a phone given to him by the Israelis to facilitate emergency border crossings.
Abu Nidal called Israeli forces, which put an ambulance on standby and the rebels took the injured fighter to a crossing point and left him there.
After the rebels pulled back, Israeli soldiers checked the patient for booby-traps and weapons, and then whisked him over the border and rushed him to hospital.
This scenario from last week has played out more than 200 times in the past six months, rebels in southern Syria said.
Wounded civilians and fighters have been ferried across one of the world’s most bitterly disputed frontiers, as Syrians seek expert medical treatment from a country they once viewed as the enemy.
Syria and Israel have officially been at war since 1948, and Syrians have grown up with state propaganda blaming the country’s problems on Israel and its main ally, the United States.
With the uprising-turned-war against the president, Bashar Al Assad, however, rebels engaged in combat near Israel have begun to reassess who is friend and who is foe.
Possible motivations for Israel offering such help are numerous. To start with, it gains intelligence and develops useful contacts with more moderate rebel factions.
And Israel also has to be wary of rebel factions linked to Al Qaeda taking control of the Syria-side of its frontier, something it is at pains to avoid fearing it would then be attacked. Earning some goodwill among local Syrians through provision of medical care may pay dividends in keeping Al Qaeda groups away.
Transporting wounded across the border is, from the rebel point of view, fairly easy. They call Abu Nidal, take the wounded to the border and leave. The Israelis do the rest.
"More than 250 of our people have gone across, they get amazing medical care there," said a rebel commander in Deraa, where a new offensive known as Geneva Horan is under way.
“We’ve had wounded people taken across and get airlifted to specialist facilities far inside Israel, we couldn’t dream of getting that kind of treatment here, our field hospitals don’t even have proper doctors or pain killers.”
According to Israeli media, 700 civilians, including the elderly and children, have been treated for war injuries in a field hospital set up a year ago in the Golan Heights, territory Israel annexed from Syria in 1981 after seizing it during the 1967 war, a move not recognised by the international community.
Getting wounded men into Israel for treatment is sometimes more straightforward than transporting them into Jordan, where rebels say the authorities have a more lengthy screening process that the severely injured can ill afford to wait out.
Rebel commanders recount cases in which wounded fighters were turned back from the Jordan border, the closest exit at the time, and taken to Israel instead. Some have died en route having been rejected by Amman, rebels said.
Those taken for treatment in Israel are not harshly treated and are only questioned if they agree to talk to Israeli security officers, according to rebels in southern Syria. Those who refuse to speak are given medical care and allowed to recuperate alongside those who opt to share information.
“The Israelis are mainly interested in the Islamists, they want to know their numbers and locations and even the most trivial details about them,” said another rebel commander who has sent wounded fighters over the frontier.
“They also want to know what kind of weapons the rebels have, what quantities, what capabilities.”
In Deraa the more extreme rebel fringe has limited presence compared to other parts of the country, but Jabhat Al Nusra, an Al Qaeda affiliate, remains a significant force and the Islamic Muthanna Movement, ideologically close to more radical groups, is also powerful.
Both groups knew about rebels seeking medical aid in Israel, and turned a blind eye to it, rebel commanders said.
“It’s not a secret and they [Al Nusra and the Muthanna Movement] know that if the wounded don’t get help in Israel they will die, so they look the other way and wounded fighters get a chance to live,” said a rebel commander.
Syrians from Deraa, the birthplace of the uprising and an area that has long been garrisoned by regime troops because of its proximity to Israel, have been appreciative of the medical assistance.
“Any help we can get we appreciate and in my opinion if the Israel air force want come and bomb some of Assad’s bases here, they’d be very welcome,” said a Deraa resident.
When they are discharged and returned across the border, rebels say the recovered patients are given between US$200 (Dh735) and $1,000 in cash and supplies of whatever medicines they need for their recovery. Many rebels in Deraa have been fighting without pay for months.
Israel has been discreet about its provision of the medical care, although it allowed TV cameras into a field hospital last month for the first time.
Its medical aid for the opposition fighters has prompted speculation that even greater help is going to Syrian rebels, including suggestions of intelligence sharing on regime forces and even arms supplies.
It remains a highly sensitive issue and the identities of Syrians being treated in Israel are kept secret, out of fear of mistrust from their friends and retribution, either from Islamic extremists or the regime.
Israel’s policy towards the revolt appears to have been as confused as western policy. The conflict, which has killed more than 136,000 people, has prompted worries about the growing role of Al Qaeda, Iran and Hizbollah.
Israel is widely reported to have carried out missile strikes to prevent weapons transfers from the Syrian regime to Hizbollah, but they have been limited.
The wounded fighter stretchered across the border on February 2, just a day into the Geneva Horan offensive, received medical treatment but died. His corpse was returned to Syria, cleaned and with a note of condolence attached, written in Arabic, together with a thorough medical report detailing cause of death.
An opposition activist from Deraa was quick to contrast that with the treatment of Syrian wounded in regime administered hospitals, where human-rights groups and the UN have documented the injured being arrested, refused treatment and tortured by government security agents.
“Wounded Syrians go to Israeli hospitals and their lives are usually saved but if they go to a Syrian [regime] hospital, they are more likely to be killed,” the activist said.
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
2021 World Triathlon Championship Series
May 15: Yokohama, Japan
June 5: Leeds, UK
June 24: Montreal, Canada
July 10: Hamburg, Germany
Aug 17-22: Edmonton, Canada (World Triathlon Championship Final)
Nov 5-6 : Abu Dhabi, UAE
Date TBC: Chengdu, China
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
In numbers
1,000 tonnes of waste collected daily:
- 800 tonnes converted into alternative fuel
- 150 tonnes to landfill
- 50 tonnes sold as scrap metal
800 tonnes of RDF replaces 500 tonnes of coal
Two conveyor lines treat more than 350,000 tonnes of waste per year
25 staff on site
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
Director: Scott Cooper
Starring: Jeremy Allen White, Odessa Young, Jeremy Strong
Rating: 4/5
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Results
Stage 7:
1. Caleb Ewan (AUS) Lotto Soudal - 3:18:29
2. Sam Bennett (IRL) Deceuninck-QuickStep - same time
3. Phil Bauhaus (GER) Bahrain Victorious
4. Michael Morkov (DEN) Deceuninck-QuickStep
5. Cees Bol (NED) Team DSM
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates - 24:00:28
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers - 0:00:35
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep - 0:01:02
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Jumbo-Visma - 0:01:42
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo - 0:01:45
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
More on Quran memorisation:
THE SPECS
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Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
- George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
- Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
- Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
- Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
- Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
- The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
- Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
Fixtures
Friday Leganes v Alaves, 10.15pm; Valencia v Las Palmas, 12.15am
Saturday Celta Vigo v Real Sociedad, 8.15pm; Girona v Atletico Madrid, 10.15pm; Sevilla v Espanyol, 12.15am
Sunday Athletic Bilbao v Getafe, 8.15am; Barcelona v Real Betis, 10.15pm; Deportivo v Real Madrid, 12.15am
Monday Levante v Villarreal, 10.15pm; Malaga v Eibar, midnight
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Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
LIKELY TEAMS
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India (from)
Virat Kohli (captain), Murali Vijay, Lokesh Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wkt), Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah.
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
The Vile
Starring: Bdoor Mohammad, Jasem Alkharraz, Iman Tarik, Sarah Taibah
Director: Majid Al Ansari
Rating: 4/5
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