At first they poured in slowly, but now that trickle had become a steady stream.

Countless Syrian civilians and fighters are being brought into Israeli hospitals for treatments from wounds attained in the war-torn country’s internal skirmish. Syrians being treated in Israel hospitals have grown in number even though the travel between borders is a matter of life and death itself as Israel is still technically an enemy of Syria.

Looking for Hope

Among the Syrian patients administered to in one of the health institutions in Israel is a 16-year-old girl who was left paralyzed in both legs after a shot in her back damaged her spine. With her is her mother who has asked that her name be withheld. The woman voiced the same concerns of fellow Syrians in Israeli hospitals who were interviewed – they asked that their names not be revealed because they fear the consequences on their families back home from Syria’s harsh regime would their whereabouts be made known.

The mother recounted how her young ward got shot and why she decided to take her wounded daughter on a risky flight just to have her treated.

“I saw her falling to the floor, in all the blood. I was terrified I was going to lose her. I said ‘Please, I don’t want to bury my children one by one’,” the mother tearfully said.

“We would get Israeli television channels in my village. I knew that medicine here is advanced,” she said on her decision to bring her girl across the border. She added that Syrian rebels helped them to make their journey possible.

Since March, the Nahariya Hospital, wherein the woman and her daughter were brought in after their cross, had taken in more than 80 Syrian patients. Currently, more and more Syrians are braving the battle zones just so they could get the needed medical attention, thus making the numbers of Syrian patients increase.

However, the Israeli government still refuses to accept refugees from the country since it is still at war with it. All it does is offer medical assistance to those in need of help. Once a Syrian patient recovers he again tackles the dangerous journey home.

Government authorities have also refused to divulge how these Syrians treated in the country’s hospitals were brought over or whether they make contacts with the rebels or other individuals to have these people delivered into their care.

“This is a very sensitive issue and people’s lives are at stake,” a military spokeswoman stated with regards to this matter. Even the UN military observers who are situated within the ceasefire lines between the two countries declined to comment.

No Friend or Foe

Doctors in the hospitals know nothing about how their Syrian patients were transported. All the more, they know nothing of their identities – they could be mere Syrian civilians or they also could be members of the rebellion uprising against Assad’s government.

However, both Syrians and Israelis have found a common ground for unity within the four walls of the hospitals – medicine.

“In medicine there are no borders, no color, no nationality,” Oscar Embon, director general of the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, stated. “You treat each and every person and I am proud that we are able to do this.”