Hundreds of White Helmets Evacuated by Israel to Jordan: Reports

TEHRAN (Defapress) –The Israeli military said that overnight it had completed what it called “a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families ...due to an immediate threat to their lives”.

It said they were transferred to a neighboring country, which it did not identify.

On Saturday, Israeli security forces closed down roads in the occupied Golan Heights, on the Syrian frontier, ahead of the evacuation operation.

A Jordanian foreign ministry spokesman said the kingdom had allowed the UN to arrange the entry and passage of what he called 800 Syrian civil defense workers, Reuters reported.

“The kingdom agreed to a request by Britain, Germany and Canada to give the White Helmet workers temporary asylum in the kingdom before settlement in the West on humanitarian grounds,” spokesman Mohammad al Kayed said.

He said the aid workers would remain at a “closed” location and that Britain, Germany and Canada had agreed to resettle them within three months.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad described the White Helmets as "a branch of al-Qaeda and al-Nusra" militant groups and a “PR stunt” by the US, the UK and France.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the group claims to be a humanitarian NGO, but actually supports terrorists and covers up their crimes.

"The White Helmets not only feel at home on Jabhat al-Nusra and Daesh-controlled territories but openly sympathize with them and provide them with information and even financial support. How is that for double standards? There is documentary evidence of the White Helmets’ involvement in some of al-Nusra’s operations and cover-up over civilian deaths," she said.

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