Wounded Syrians treated in Israeli hospitals

JERUSALEM - France 24

An Israeli nurse treats a severely wounded Syrian man at the Western Galilee Hospital in the northern city of Nahariya September 10, 2013. REUTERS photo

A Syrian boy lies hovering between life and death in an Israeli hospital, oblivious to the Mickey Mouse and motorbike stickers on the wall, as a bank of screens monitor his vital signs.

Avidan Landau, a nurse at the Ziv Medical Center in northern Israel, enters the ward to check the boy’s saline drip. "He's just a kid, not my enemy,” says Landau. “A child cannot be an enemy."

Israel and Syria have been officially in a state of war for decades. Since the Syrian uprising broke out more than two years ago, Israel has – until recently – been careful not to publicly take sides in the conflict raging across its northeastern border.

But since early this year, at least two Israeli hospitals have been treating a trickle of seriously wounded Syrians. At the Ziv Medical Center, nearly 100 Syrian patients, brought in from across the Golan frontline, have been treated since February.

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