Near the Syria border
Near the Syria borderFlash 90

A Syrian man who was wounded in the ongoing civil war in his country was transferred on Monday evening to the Ziv Hospital in Tzfat, after IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz authorized the move.

The man, who suffered moderate wounds to his waist, was taken to the hospital’s trauma unit for initial treatment. He is expected to undergo surgery overnight Monday.

Israeli media reported that the man’s wounds were caused by shrapnel and gunfire.

As the civil war has raged in Syria, there have been several instances, particularly over the last month, in which wounded Syrians were taken for treatment in Israel.

At the end of March, the IDF brought several wounded Syrians into Israel after they appeared at the northern border.

Gantz authorized Israeli troops to administer first aid to the injured Syrians, but at least two clearly required more care than medics could provide in the field. Those two were evacuated to a hospital in Israel for further, more specialized treatment.

A week earlier, four wounded Syrians similarly arrived at the border with Israel, seeking medical care. Two were evacuated to hospitals in Israel and the others were provided with first aid and returned to Syria.

In February, seven Syrians were rushed to Ziv Medical Center in Tzfat, all having been wounded in clashes on the Golan Heights between opposition forces and government troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. One was listed in critical condition.

In such cases, the identity of the wounded Syrians is not normally released to media, and it is not known whether they were fighters or civilians – nor to which side in the country’s civil war they belong.

In some parts along the Jordanian-Israeli buffer region, the Islamist Front for the Liberation of Syria -- a radical jihadist group that comprises more than a third of the opposition forces -- has seized control of the area entirely, prompting the IDF to raise its alert status along the northern border zone.