“Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Leviticus 19:18)

A 20-year-old Syrian woman who fled to Israel to give birth to her first child in an Israeli hospital said that both she and her baby were being treated well by Israel.  (CBN)

“I don’t feel like I am in an enemy country.  The staff are all helping me and worrying about me,” she said, adding that her baby “is getting wonderful, devoted care.”  (JPost)

Although the woman feared that Syrians may try to hurt her for coming to Israel, she said she preferred to take her chances with the Israelis than give birth in Syria, where the medical system has been compromised due to the protracted civil war.

As well, she also said that her community had been surviving on rice for the last two months.

A 20-year-old Syrian woman gave birth to a healthy boy in Israel recently.  He is the first Syrian baby born in Israel since the Syrian civil war began.  (YouTube capture)

The mother, who gave birth to a healthy seven pound boy, told reporters, “I feared for the baby’s welfare if the birth went through complications at home.”

By the time she reached the border at the Golan Heights, she was already in labor.  She was immediately transported to the Ziv Hospital in Safed, where the baby was delivered.

“To my joy, the Israeli army saw I was suffering from terrible pains, and picked me up and transferred me to the hospital,” she explained.

This is the first time that a Syrian baby has been born in Israel since the Syrian conflict began, although as many as 250 wounded Syrian civilians have been treated in Israeli hospitals and then returned to Syria.

Syria is formally at war with Israel.