Reference :
V-P-IL-E-02434
Date :
03/11/2011
Caption :
Kuneitra crossing. Family members meet again after 14 years, at the ICRC office, or "Checkpoint Charlie", the neutral area of the buffer zone. The last time they saw each other was in Jordan.
Confidentiality level :
public
Publication restrictions :
publication without restrictions
Description :
They can not visit each other, since family visits between relatives from the Golan and Syria proper ceased in 1992.
ICRC website, photo gallery 14.11.2011
At the request of the Syrian population of the Israeli-occupied Golan, the ICRC acts as a neutral intermediary between the Israeli and Syrian authorities. During the past four years the ICRC has enabled four brides to cross from Syria proper into the Golan Heights. On Thursday 3 November 2011, the gates at Kuneitra crossing opened and the ICRC facilitated the crossing of two of these Syrian women, who would be joining their new families in the Golan.
When Israel occupied the Golan Heights during the 1967 war, tens of thousands of Syrians left the territory, but a few thousand remained and found themselves cut off from their country, friends and families.
Syrian families who live in the occupied Golan have been unable to meet regularly since 1992. It has become an important humanitarian activity for the ICRC to facilitate crossings of people and goods between the Golan Heights and Syria proper, and to enable the Syrian-Golanese population to keep in touch with their families on both sides of the UN-controlled demilitarized zone.
Original material :
digital
Resolution :
4300x2866
Orientation :
landscape
Colour/B&W :
colour
