The Israeli military said Sunday it had rescued members of a Syrian volunteer civil organization from the volatile frontier area and evacuated them to a third country, the first such Israeli intervention in Syria's lengthy civil war.
Jordan confirmed that 800 Syrian citizens have entered its territory to be resettled in Western countries. The volunteers, known as White Helmets, had been stranded along the frontier with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights following the latest Syrian government offensive in southwestern Syria.
The Israeli military said the overnight operation was an "exceptional humanitarian gesture'' done at the request of the United States and its European allies due to "an immediate threat to the (Syrians') lives.''
The military said its actions did not reflect a change to Israel's non-intervention policy in Syria's war, now in its eight year, where all the warring parties are considered hostile.
The Syrians would remain in Jordan for three months before moving on to Britain, Germany and Canada, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry's spokesman Mohammed al-Kayed said.
"The request was approved based on pure humanitarian reasons,''
The Associated Press first reported on Friday that US officials were finalizing plans to evacuate several hundred Syrian civil defense workers and their families from southwest Syria as Russian-backed government forces closed in on the Quneitra province, along the Golan Heights frontier.
The officials said the White Helmets, who have enjoyed backing from the United States and other Western nations for years, were likely to be targeted by Syrian forces as they retook control of the southwest. Evacuation plans were accelerated after last week's NATO summit in Brussels.
Since the Syrian government offensive began in June, the area along the frontier in the Golan Heights has been the safest in the southwestern region, attracting hundreds of displaced because of its location along the disengagement line with Israel, demarcated in 1974 after a war. Israel has occupied the Golan Heights since 1967. Thousands of civilians had taken shelter near the frontier to escape the government offensive.
The Syrian government is unlikely to fire there or carry out airstrikes for fear of an Israeli response.
Meanwhile, Syrian forces kept up their offensive, pounding the southern tip of the southwestern region where an Islamic State-affiliated group still holds territory.
The White Helmets typically have operated in opposition-held areas across Syria, places where government services are almost non-existent, voluntarily risking their lives to save hundreds of civilian lives during relentless government airstrikes and bombardments.
The government and Russia view the White Helmets as "agents'' of foreign powers and have regularly accused them of staging rescue missions or chemical attacks.
Syrian state TV Al-Ikhbariya reported the Israeli evacuation of the White Helmets, calling it a "scandal'' and saying "terrorist groups'' now have "zero options.''
Over the last month, Syrian government forces aided by Russian air power have swept through southwestern Syria to consolidate government control over this strategic corner of the country that straddles the border with Jordan and the frontier with Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.