Konflikten i Syrien

Since February 2013, however, the Jewish state has provided medical care to injured Syrians. So far, 1,600 of them—most badly injured—have been treated in hospitals in northern Israel. The effort has produced uplifting stories of injured Syrian children saved by Israeli doctors. But the majority of patients have been young men of military age, and as the al-Makt trial shows, their affiliation with the various rebel groups remains shrouded in secrecy.

Since 1974, a United Nations peacekeeping force has been stationed in the Golan Heights to monitor the cease-fire between Israel and Syria. For the past year, most of the peacekeepers have been stationed on the Israeli side after Nusra abducted a U.N. battalion from Fiji in Syria (they were later released). In their latest report to the U.N., the peacekeepers mentioned several meetings along the border between armed Syrian rebels and Israeli soldiers. They saw the Israelis take injured Syrians into their vehicles and load rebel trucks with sacks. What was in those sacks remains unclear, but Israeli sources, speaking in an off-the-record briefing, say the contents included food and blankets for the winter.

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Until recently, Zarka was a colonel in the Israeli army and ran a field hospital along the border to treat injured Syrians. He is Druze, the first to be appointed as a hospital director in Israel, and is well-aware of the rumors circulating in the area. “Many in my [Druze] community ask me, ‘How can you help the same people who may shoot our brothers across the border?’” he says. “But what should I do, let a man die? Even if there were a Nusra fighter sitting right here, with a bullet in his abdomen, should I shoot him again? Or as a doctor, should I save his life? To me, it’s clear, and the fact that Israel is treating its enemies is proof of the country’s real humanitarian commitment.”

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As I drew closer to Majdal Shams, the fighting seemed to intensify. Not far from Hader, the Syrian village directly across the border, I heard machine gun fire and saw tracer bullets. The Druze live on both sides of the border, and many of the same families reside in the two villages, separated only by an electronic fence.

Unlike most Druze in Israel, who serve in the army, many of the Druze in Majdal Shams have long been supporters of Assad. But the war has begun to change that, especially among younger villagers. Today, the village is divided between those who support Assad and those who back the rebels. One reason is the regime’s brutality. Another is Israeli protection. “Deep down, everyone here knows that they owe their security to Israel,” says Dolan Abu-Saleh, the head of the Majdal Shams municipality. Abu-Saleh says Israeli authorities promised they will protect their relatives if Nusra or ISIS attacks Hader. “There is a plan to evict residents of Hader here to Israel, to safety,” he says. “There are understandings, and Israel knows how to make sure that Nusra does not attack Hader and the other Druze villages around.” To him, this is comforting; he has family on the other side, and in Syria Islamists have kidnapped, killed or forcibly converted Druze.

Saleh Tarif, a Druze leader and former minister in the Israeli government, is also confident Israel will help his fellow Druze in Syria. “I can carefully estimate that Israel is using a dual approach—it has certain understandings with groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, and it also uses its power to threaten it not to take certain actions,” he says. “It’s a jungle on the other side, and Israel has to do what it can.” Israeli officials will not confirm their Druze policy here, but have offered hints. “The [Israeli] alliance with the Druze people does not stop at the border,” Major General Amir Eshel, the commander of the air force, recently told a meeting of Druze leaders.

But in mid-June, Nusra fighters killed 20 Druze villagers near Idlib, in northern Syria. And for the first time, the Druze on the Israeli side of the border held demonstrations in the Golan Heights, publicly demanding that Israel protect their Syrian relatives. Not long after the killings, Nusra apologized, saying it regretted the incident.

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Yet the situation along the border is still in flux. After my visit to Majdal Shams, fighting intensified between the rebels and the Syrian regime. In mid-June, sirens sent thousands of Israelis in the Golan scrambling to shelters, and the rebels—it’s not clear which groups—have reportedly surrounded Hader.