Magen David Adom began a blood drive on Sunday in the Druze-majority village of Isfiya to support Syrian Druze wounded by militia groups and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) regime forces in recent clashes, The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL) reported.
Dozens of people lined up to donate their blood as soon as the donation center opened, and 40 samples were collected in just two hours.
While the IDF has set up emergency care centers for Druze in Syria in recent months, employees at the blood bank warned that there was currently no way to transfer the blood as of yet.
“There is no way to transfer the blood samples to Syria, at least for now, but we hope our wounded brothers will be allowed to receive medical treatment in Israel,” Wafa Rachruch, a blood bank employee in charge of Isfiya’s temporary blood donation facility, said.
Isfiya resident Rami told TPS-IL that donating blood was “special for him,” especially knowing “It’s for our brothers.”
While Rami is one of the few members of his community without relatives in Syria, he asserted that “all the Druze are family.”
Fears for Syrian Druze
Saleh Badriya, the CEO of the Israeli-Druze Center in Isfiya, who organized the efforts and worked as a paramedic for 15 years, shared that several of his relatives were killed during the recent attacks on Syrian Druze. Last week, he crossed into Syria in protest against Bedouin militias and Syrian regime violence.
Despite promises from Syrian leadership, he admitted that it was hard to feel that his family would be safe remaining in Syria.
“Sunni jihadists view us Druze as renegades, and I am not sure at all the new leader can do anything about it, even if he wanted to,” Badriya said.