Jordanians rush to help displaced Syrians across border

AMMAN — Citizens in Ramtha and Mafraq have been collecting donations to be sent to Syrians displaced in the areas across the border with Jordan as a result of the ongoing bombardment campaign on Syria's Daraa province.

Citizens in the northern border town of Ramtha said that 30 trucks full of supplies were waiting for authorities' approval to head towards thousands of Syrians inside their war-torn country near the border line.

Following a field visit to the northern frontier on Sunday, Prime Minister Omar Razzaz unveiled a national aid campaign to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian people inside their country. 

On his Twitter account, Razzaz said that the campaign would be administrated through the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organisation with the aim of unifying all relief efforts and sending urgent assistance to the “Syrian brothers inside their country”.

Muthanna Zoubi from Ramtha told The Jordan Times that citizens from his town and from Mafraq on the northeastern border with Syria had been gathering donations since Saturday to be sent to the Syrians fleeing the government forces’ offensive, supported by Russia, Iran and Shiite militias, against rebel-held areas in the southern province of Daraa that began on June 19.

“Donations include medicine, child milk, huge amounts of canned food and mineral water, clothes and blankets,” Zoubi said, adding: “Some people have even brought their household blankets, pillows and mattresses.” 

He also said that no Syrians from those on the border areas near his town have entered Jordan, adding that the “army has allowed the entry of six critically injured Syrians who are now receiving treatment at King Abdullah  University Hospital.”

Zoubi said that sounds of explosions from Daraa have been less loud during the past two days compared with previous days, attributing the reason to the tentative “ceasefire” the Syrian army gives for reconciliation efforts.      

The government said on Saturday that it has sent convoys of cross-border humanitarian aid to the Syrian people displaced in the Syria’s southern province of Daraa.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights was quoted in the international press Sunday as saying that the number of people who have fled Syria’s southwestern city of Daraa to the border areas near Jordan and Israel, due to fierce attacks by Syrian regime forces, now stands at some 198,000.