Israel aiding Syrian refugees on Turkish and Jordanian borders

Israeli aid groups are working with Western organizations to provide humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan, MP Ayoob Kara told AFP on Thursday, Hurriyet reports.

"We have found a way, with the voluntary organisations from Israel that are now on the borders of Jordan and Turkey with Syria, to provide humanitarian help to the Syrians who are there," Kara said.

"My advisors are also in Jordan to try to find a way to help the refugees in Jordan," he added, saying that Israeli volunteer groups had been working in Turkey and Jordan for the past two months.

Kara stressed that the aid was humanitarian, with Israeli groups providing "food, medicine and a lot of help." He added that the organisations involved were non-governmental groups working under the auspices of European institutions to assist Syrian refugees in the border areas.

"This is not the government, it's volunteers," he said, declining to identify the groups involved.

"They are Israelis but they don't work there as Israelis, they work with the European groups there." Kara said the Israeli government was wary of being seen to aid the opposition groups fighting to overthrow the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose country is a sworn enemy of Israel.