Christian-Jewish organization delivers emergency aid to persecuted Syrian minorities under threat

Fox News

2 days ago

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews swiftly mobilized its resources in July to aid persecuted Syrian Druze and Christians facing what some have called a genocide carried out by jihadists in southern Syria.
Syrian-backed forces, including jihadist fighters, launched attacks against Syrian Druze in the southern part of the country, resulting in the murders of at least 1,400 people, including a 35-year-old Syrian American from Oklahoma, Hosam Saraya, who was visiting family in Syria. "Once we saw what was happening in Sweida, we could not turn a blind eye to it." International Fellowship of Christians and Jews President and Global CEO Yael Eckstein told Fox News Digital.
Her organization, she noted, had never operated in Syria prior to this year but said her organization "got an urgent call from a hospital from Sweida, and they needed basic medicines, surgical care, ICU medicine and equipment, first responder equipment and masks for morgue workers."
The Fellowship coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to deliver medicine and equipment to Sweida. Eckstein said her group supplied "retired Israeli ambulances to Syria so the locals can operate them."
The majority Druze city of Sweida was a focal point of the siege executed by Syrian Islamists loyal to new President Ahmed Al-Sharaa, a former member of U.S.-designated terrorist movements, al Qaeda and the Islamic State.
According to Christian Broadcasting Network, Christians were also targeted. Islamists reportedly murdered Khaled Mazhar, pastor of the Good Shepherd Evangelical Church in Sweida, along with 11 family members. An additional person survived the massacre of Christians because the Islamists thought she was dead.
In July, Israel launched military strikes against the largely Bedouin forces on their way to the southern city of Sweida to stop the massacre. Israel also attacked the Syrian Defense headquarters in Damascus to halt the bloodshed in Sweida. Eckstein added that at least "26 Druze villages were fully burned."
Since Fox News Digital's interview with Eckstein, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at "least 30 villages were damaged by arson and destruction."
Eckstein said the Fellowship first provided aid in Syria in April when Druze in Syria were targeted and killed.
"When we provided 1.500 food boxes to the Druze within 13 kilometers of Israel's borders after the massacre in April, two days later Islamists burned boxes of the Fellowship," Eckstein sid. Israel and Syria do not have diplomatic relations. Syria is considered an enemy state because it has launched multiple wars against Israel since the rebirth of the Jewish state in 1948.
Eckstein said the Fellowship is "operating in enemy territory, and Jews and Christians are providing life-saving aid. Islamists don't like it. We would like to see that it is in the Syrian government's interests to receive aid and hope that more goodness will be brought to Syria.
"Now, Jewish people are standing with Christians who are being persecuted in Syria. It is really important to highlight that this is a case of good versus evil and is not just limited to Syria. It is important for Jews and Christians to stand together regarding Judeo-Christian values that sanctify life."
Safwan Marich of the Israeli Druze community runs the Fellowship's Emergency Response Center and told Fox News Digital that, in the Sweida region, "tyhere is a genocide going on. This needs no further explanation, especially for the Jewish people.
"Once the residents of the deserted village come back, they will understand the magnitude of disaster. Women were kidnapped by jihads, and children were kidnapped and missing."
Marich has been in contact with his fellow Druze in Syria."This war is religious in essence," he said. "There is a video of Daesh [Islamic State] going to one of the villages asking, 'Are you a Druze or Sunni?' And he answered that he is Syrian. He asked him again, so he answered Druze, and he was shot in the middle of the street. It is obvious there is a religious motivation behind this event.
"It is important for me to help the Druze because, first and foremost, I am a Druze. The Druze people are not aggressive and hostile, but they will not sit idly by when they are attacked. We have in the Druze tradition a commandment to help our brothers. To come to aid of Druze community wherever it might be in the world.
Marich also noted he is Israeli, and the other day a Druze officer was killed in Gaza. Twelve officers from the Druze community have been killed in Gaza since the war began.
"They died defending Israel and the Jewish people. We have an expectation that Israeli society will come through and stand by Druze community, and so we can defend our brothers in Syria. The state of Israel cannot afford to have Daesh on its borders and in the Golan Heights."
He pointed to the example of Hamas on the border and its growth as a military danger over the years as a warning about radical Islamists gaining a foothold on the Syrian-Israeli border.