Five were treated by army medics on the spot while two were transferred to the Ziv Hospital in Safed with severe head wounds, one later died. 

In the third incident of its kind over recent weeks, seven Syrians were treated for their wounds in northern Israel yesterday, having made their way to the Golan border between the two countries. Last week the Israeli army treated two Syrian fighters injured in clashes and in mid-February, seven Syrian combatants were treated in an Israeli hospital. However, yesterday’s incident was the first time that Syrian civilians had been given treatment in Israel. YNet says that it is unclear how the group of men reached the Israeli border, but that they were met by soldiers from the Golani Brigade. Five were treated by army medics on the spot while two were transferred to the Ziv Hospital in Safed with severe head wounds, one later died. A hospital spokesman said that the injured Syrians were all presumed to be civilians.

In a sign that Israel is expecting to treat further Syrian casualties, Maariv reports on its front page, that Israel has opened a field hospital in the Golan Heights. Fighting from Syria’s two-year long internal conflict has intensified near the Israeli border over recent weeks with some estimates that Syrian opposition forces have recently captured large swathes of territory in the area. Stray fire from the fighting has landed in Israeli territory on several occasions and last weekend, shooting appeared to be directed at Israeli troops with the IDF returning fire.


These recent developments prompted the United Nations Security Council to yesterday pass a resolution expressing “grave concern” over repeated violations of border arrangements by the Syrian army and the presence of armed opposition fighters within the “area of separation,” a narrow strip of land that separates Israeli and Syrian forces, agreed in the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War.