[zonbron]

2014, flashback


UN: Israel interacting with rebels on Syrian border
UNDOF peacekeepers detail cooperation between IDF troops and insurgents in the Golan Heights
https://www.timesofisrael.com/un-isr...syrian-border/

A June 2013 memorandum notes that Israel’s “Liaison Officer informed UNDOF that the IDF had provided emergency medical treatment to 20 armed members of the opposition, all of whom had been returned to the Syrian side.”

Israel has accepted Syrians for medical treatment for years, setting up a field hospital next to the DMZ, and transferring more seriously injured patients to other medical facilities in the north of the country.

Since last year, more than 700 wounded Syrians have been treated in Israeli hospitals via the Syria-Israel border crossing.

Israeli officials have refused to identify who they treat and whether they are regime forces, rebels or civilians.

UNDOF has patrolled the buffer zone between Syria and Israel since 1974, a year after the Yom Kippur War, helping to maintain a ceasefire between the two countries.

With the onset of the Syrian civil war in recent years, peacekeepers have been attacked multiple times by jihadist groups such as the al-Nusra Front, who have taken control of most of the Syrian side of the border.

In September, the United Nations secured the release of 45 UNDOF soldiers, kidnapped in August by the al-Qaeda-linked group, through the payment of a $25-million ransom by Qatar, an Israeli TV report claimed.

Nine hundred and thirty UN monitors remain stationed in the buffer zone, according to the UN website, although the force has abandoned many of its positions along the front and transferred its headquarters to Israel.