Northern Israel hospitals have been treating Syrians wounded in that country’s war. Jewish organizations have been sending aid to Jordan to help the Syrian refugees which have flooded into the country.

Now a group of Israelis is taking even more direct action to assist those impacted by the conflict. Members of an Israeli group dubbed IL4Syrians, founded over a year ago and guided by the motto, “Nobody asks permission to kill. We do not ask permission to save lives,” have been secretly sneaking into Jodan to help Syrian refugees.

The program was reported on the Palestinian website Donia Alwatan, which contrasted IL4Syrians’s direct action campaigns with more symbolic shows of support being provided to Jordan:

“The Arab countries offer condolences… but the best role is provided by the Israelis because they are crossing the border to provide assistance to the refugees who fled deprived of everything, risking their lives without a word of thank you.”

The efforts of IL4Syrians activists have not been met with unmitigated congratulations by Jordanians. Instead there has been a depressingly predictable backlash in some quarters:

Jordanian activists denounced these acts done by the Israeli delegation, and demanded the government investigate this case, and tighten controls on the entry of Israelis to Jordan for tourism or other reasons, because of the violation of the sovereignty of Jordan, normalization with Israel and the gradual promotion of an alternative homeland [for Palestinians.] They also demanded from relevant official bodies a clarifying response [as] to what the Israeli delegation did.

An item from Israel’s Channel 10 television shows IL4Syrians in action:

[Photo: Freedom House / Flickr]