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Revealed: How Syrian Rebels Seek Medical Help from Israel
(National-UAE) Phil Sands and Suha Maayeh - 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. After the rebels took the injured fighter to a crossing point, they pulled back and Israeli soldiers checked the patient for booby-traps and weapons, then rushed him to hospital. This scenario has played out more than 200 times in the past six months, rebels in southern Syria said. 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. However, rebels engaged in combat near Israel have begun to reassess who is friend and who is foe. "More than 250 of our people have gone across, they get amazing medical care there," said a rebel commander in Deraa. "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."