SYRIAN SNIPERS DELIBERATELY PARALYZING CHILDREN

Gunmen are shooting to ’cause misery’ rather than kill; numerous young victims treated in Israel, returned home with donated wheelchairs.   

 

Syrian children are being intentionally targeted by snipers aiming to paralyze rather than kill them, an Israeli doctor told The Times of Israel.

 

Dr. Yoav Hoffman, a senior physician at the pediatric intensive care unit of Western Galilee Hospital in Nahariya, said that his department has received 25 seriously injured Syrian children between the ages of a few months and 17 since last July, delivered to the hospital by the IDF. 

Located 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the border with Lebanon, Western Galilee Hospital has treated a total of 230 Syrians since March 2013, many of them sent to the facility’s new neurosurgery department. 

Hoffman said that up to six of his unit’s patients have displayed distinct bullet injuries that indicate intentional sniper targeting.  “The injuries are very specific: gunshot wounds from a single bullet to the lumbar spine, near vertebrates 2 and 3,” Hoffman told The Times of Israel. “These shootings are not intended to kill, but to cause misery. They result in paralysis or slow death in Syria’s conditions.” 

Hoffman said that he had never seen such injuries outside the battlefield; his colleagues initially believed that the spinal injuries were a coincidence. But when patients displaying the same injuries kept coming in, the hospital staff was “moved to tears” as it realized that the children were being targeted.

 

Most of the children treated in Nahariya have received little or no treatment in the field in Syria, Hoffman noted, adding that the children often arrive alone with no medical records. In addition to bullet wounds, children typically arrive with multi-traumatic injuries resulting from explosions.

 

Such is the case of three-year-old Nihad (not her real name), collected by the Free Syrian Army with her father after a government bombardment of their home in Daraa on February 19. Nihad lost her twin brother in the attack and sustained a severe head injury.  “The treatment here is excellent,” says Nihad’s father, who became overwhelmed by emotion as he described the horrible sight of his slain son.  He is now preparing to return to Syria in the coming days with his daughter. 

 

Well over 1,000 Syrians have been treated by Israel so far, 700 of them in a field hospital set up by the military near the frontier on the Golan Heights and others in civilian hospitals across northern Israel. 

 

The children left paralyzed return home to Syria in wheelchairs donated by the Friends of the Western Galilee Hospital, Hoffman said.  “You can tell they’re extremely scarred emotionally,” he said. “But they’re very grateful for the treatment.”

 

See pictures - http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-doctor-syrian-children-targeted-by-snipers/

 

 

RELATED

 

February 2014 - A peak into the Israeli field hospital set to treat wounded Syrians in Golan Heights

 

 

Channel 2 News aired footage of the fenced Golan Heights facility, which has treated over 700 Syrian patients since it was established less than a year ago. 

 

The hospital, staffed by soldiers in uniform, includes an emergency room, an intensive care unit, an operating theater, a mobile laboratory, a pharmacy and an x-ray facility. It treats Syrian patients who cross the border regardless of creed – or of where their loyalties lie.  Those who are well enough are sent back across the border, and those who require further treatment are evacuated to the military hospital, a field commander at the facility told Channel 2. In this way, the hospital treats about a hundred Syrians per month.
 

The wounded Syrians, he said, suffer from grave stomach and head injuries, as well as amputations and a range of other injuries. Extreme cases are transferred to Israeli civilian hospitals in the north and center of the country.

 

The patients also cross the border armed with gross misconceptions about Israel and its people.

“They say that before the previous week, before they came, they thought we were the Great Satan, the enemies, and looked for the tails between our legs,” he said.

 

Col. Tarif Bader, commander of the hospital, said that while the decision to administer humanitarian aid to populations outside of Israel was always a dilemma, in this case, it was “the right choice” – one he was proud to be a part of.

Read more -  http://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-allows-first-peek-into-secret-field-hospital-on-syrian-border/

 

 

NOTE by blogger - The United States and Europe have been insistent for years that Israel must give up the Golan Heights "for peace".

 

There is hardly a whisper now about their great idea for peace, as the Syrian government and jihadists from all over the Middle East battle it out for the third year.  

 

The absurdity of using the excuse of "peace" for simply despoiling Israel of its land has been demonstrated more than once. 

 

Israel gave up the Sinai and now it's festering with jihadists that even the ruthless government of Egypt has trouble subduing. 

 

Gaza was surrendered to the Palestinians, only to be turned into a giant launching pad for their rockets that have been showered on Israel for years.  Adults and children living in the south of Israel are being constantly terrorized by those rockets.

 

So the pressure has been for Israel to give up Golan and Judea and Samaria.  The talk about the Golan was interrupted (it's bound to resume some day) due to the fighting in Syria.  But the pressure on Israel to give up its Biblical land continues with relentless verbal harassment and threats by the United States government.

 

Peace?  What kind of peace does the United States and Europe talk about when Muslims are slaughtering each other and killing 'infidels' all over the world?  And HOW would weakening Israel by partitioning and shrinking this tiny country bring any peace to the region?

 

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SYRIAN Statistics cited by  CBC  report

 

100,000+ have been killed

This is a United Nations estimate as of July 2013. The UN has stopped updating its death toll because it says it can no longer verify the information. Activist groups estimate the toll at more than 140,000.

2 million+ have fled Syria

2.4 million refugees who have registered — and tens of thousands more are waiting to register — with the office of the UN High Commissoner on Refugees. The actual number is feared to be much higher.

3/4 of refugees are women and children

Almost half of the refugees are girls and women, while another quarter are boys under 18.

Another 4 million+ are displaced inside Syria

Aid agencies continue to increase their estimates of internally displaced people.

 

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BY DENYING THEM ENTRY, PALESTINIAN LEADERS CONDEMNED HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIANS IN SYRIA TO STARVATION AND DEATH

 

 

THE LEBANON DAILY STAR REPORTS:

January 11, 2014
 

Palestinians die from hunger, medical shortages in Yarmouk
 

BEIRUT: A Syrian monitoring group said Friday it had documented the deaths of 41 Palestinian refugees in besieged Yarmouk camp, including women and children, as a result of food and medical shortages.

 

“Food and medical shortages have killed at least 41 people in the past three months in Yarmouk” in southern Damascus, which has been under suffocating army siege since rebel groups took control of it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

 

Of the total, 24 have died as a result of malnutrition. The rest died either because of a lack of specialized treatment or because of a shortage of medicines, Observatory director Rami Abdel-Rahman said.

 

According to the Britain-based group, which relies on a network of activists and doctors across Syria for its reports, three of the fatalities were children and 13 of them women.

“Among them was a one-day-old child who could have survived had there been incubators,” Abdel-Rahman said.

 

The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees has frequently warned about the dire conditions in Yarmouk.

 

UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness Thursday described “extreme human suffering” in the camp, saying food shortages continued and that the absence of medical care had led to women dying in childbirth.

 

Syria’s army has imposed sieges on several rebel towns and neighborhoods near Damascus and beyond.

 

The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Maurer, meanwhile, also warned aid was not reaching civilians in Syria as he began a visit to Syria to assess the humanitarian situation and negotiate greater field access for the ICRC.

 

The ICRC president will hold talks in Damascus with a number of senior Syrian government officials and with the leadership and volunteers of the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the ICRC’s main partner in the country. Maurer will also be visiting people suffering the effects of the conflict to observe the situation first-hand.

 

“I am deeply concerned about the escalating violence and its impact on civilians,” Maurer said. “I am determined to press for greater field access for the ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent – in particular, to improve the impartial delivery of medical aid in besieged areas. Another priority is to ensure that our staff are rapidly given access to Syrian places of detention to assess conditions and treatment.”

 

Yarmouk was once home to some 170,000 people but tens of thousands have fled fighting in the camp.

 

Syria is officially home to nearly 500,000 Palestinian refugees, around half of whom have been displaced by the conflict.

Source - The Lebanon Daily Star -
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Jan-11/243783-palestinians-die-from-hunger-medical-shortages-in-yarmouk.ashx#axzz2vHrtd4Jf

January 10, 2014 - Abbas rejects Israeli offer to allow refugees from Syria to enter West Bank and Gaza - 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-rejects-israeli-offer-to-allow-refugees-from-syria-to-enter-west-bank-and-gaza/ed to hold elections
 

Palestinians starving in Syria refugee camps

CNN - For residents who can afford to leave, their Palestinian refugee status makes travel very difficult. "Our passports are Syrian-Palestinian passports. We can leave Syria, but we can't enter Palestine. Even if we could (leave the camp), we cannot go to Turkey without a visa, and Jordan will never let us in. We cannot go to Iraq. To go to Europe, we need visas. We have no embassies in Syria, but Lebanon will not let us in unless we have already a visa (to somewhere else), since we are only allowed a 48-hour transit visa in Lebanon," Abu Mohammed said.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/01/15/world/meast/syria-palestinian-refugees-starving/

Abbas rejects Israeli offer to resettle Syrian Palestinian refugees

The Blaze - Abbas’ rationale is that accepting the Israeli offer will somehow nullify Palestinians’ claims of “right of return” to homes in Israel.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/01/10/abbas-rejects-israels-offer-to-settle-syrian-palestinian-refugees-in-gaza-and-you-wont-believe-why/

Palestinian leaders refuse to help their brothers starving in Syria 

FOX NEWS - Leaders of both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have rebuffed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's requests for help stemming the mushrooming humanitarian crisis brought on by Syria's bloody civil war. Their refusal to help leaves some 150,000 Syrian Palestinians homeless and facing freezing temperatures, missiles, bombs and food shortages.

Lebanon’s Daily Star newspaper reported that many Palestinian refugees are being denied access to the country almost certainly as a direct result of the intervention of the powerful Lebanese-based militia Hezbollah, (backed by Iran and Syria), whose grip on the country sees them wielding most power in the Lebanese government. Hezbollah has admitted sending fighters to join forces with Syrian President Assad’s brutal regime.

According to the Daily Star, Lebanon is officially insisting that any Palestinian refugee wanting to cross their border to safety must pay a fee of 25,000 Lebanese pounds, the equivalent of $16 per person for a 14-day visa. The fee doubles to extend the duration. That sum might seem a small price to pay to escape a war zone, but for those Palestinians who have fled with little or no money and few if any belongings, it is more than most are able to come up with and places their lives in imminent danger.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2013/01/08/palestinians-look-other-way-as-brethren-in-syria-suffer/

JORDAN DENIED ENTRY TO THOUSANDS OF PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
The Jordanian authorities denied entry to thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria during 2013, Human Rights Watch has alleged. Most were either Palestinian or Iraqi, single, military-age men and people without identity documents. The organisation said in its World Report 2014 that this is a clear violation of international law.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/9473-jordan-denied-entry-to-thousands-of-palestinian-and-iraqi-refugees-fleeing-Syria

Lebanon Daily Star: 
Palestinian Ambassador says the State of Palestine would NOT grant citizenship to descendants of Palestinian refugees living in Arab countries - not even to those Palestinians now living in refugee camps in Judea and Samaria (West Bank)
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2011/Sep-15/148791-interview-refugees-will-not-be-citizens-of-new-state.ashx#axzz1vorhFGdW

NOTE:  The reason behind it is that what Palestinians really want is the whole state of Israel.  Until they get it, they think, they won't give a home to the descendants of the Palestinians who left Israel during the war.  They are using these people as pawns for their own political ends, even at the cost of so many lives.

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