13-year-old Zeinah was walking to the supermarket in her village in Syria when she heard a loud explosion. “When I woke up…after a few hours I realized I was in Israel,” she says. Israel and Syria have been enemy states for decades. But since February 2013 over 100 injured Syrians, including children, have been transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment.
Dr. Zeev Zonis, head of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, explains: “For the Syrians…on this side of the border there are monsters – Jews. You probably saw some of the propaganda – of Jews cutting pieces of Arabs and eating them….So they grew up on this feeling and their anxiety is even greater, especially if they arrive alone.”
Sara Paperin, the international affairs officer at the hospital, adds: “When you start to receive children to your medical facility, you understand very clearly these are not rebels or Assad supporters – these are children, casualties of the violence, and they need to be treated with the most advanced care that you can provide.” Read more here.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
