Precious Moman has just returned home to Gaza after three weeks at Tel Aviv’s Wolfson Hospital. He was brought at the start of 2015 by ambulance for Israeli surgeons to operate on his fragile and failing heart.
Now he is a “happy healthy baby”, like the many children brought to Israel from Middle Eastern and African countries by the organisation Shevet Achim. This was begun in 1994 with the vision rooted in the Hebrew scriptures of “loving our neighbour’s child just as we love our own”.
Each child and one parent or grandparent are brought to stay in Tel Aviv for a few weeks before and after their heart surgeries. Although it is fraught with difficulty and parents are often afraid to say they are going to Israel, Syrian children caught up in the violence are also being brought over and there is much rejoicing at each new arrival.
Emile Bruell