Palestinians Start Aid Campaign for Syrian Refugees

Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
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Palestinians Start Aid Campaign for Syrian Refugees

Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)
Raed Badr, the head of the Merciful Souls organization, believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets. (Getty Images)

Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip and Israel have raised $10 million in less than a month to build homes for Syrian refugees, according to activists behind the campaign.

"The idea was to collect 100 heaters for 100 houses. Then we found out that people are helping and we have lots of stuff," said Ibrahim Khalil, 33, a social activist from the city of Nazareth in northern Israel.

For the past six years, Palestinians have been donating food and other essentials to Syrian refugees in the Idlib region bordering Turkey through a non-profit group called Merciful Souls.

But the volume of donations this winter season was unprecedented, said Raed Badr, the head of the organization. He believes videos that circulated on social media of children suffering from cold in the snow motivated people to open their pockets.

"One day, I hope they will move us into a home because the rain is drowning our tents," said 11-year-old Nada, an orphaned girl living with her grandmother, in one video.

The plan is to build around 3,000 housing units, said Badr. Construction will also include clinics and schools, based on a model published on the organization's website.

A call for contributions went viral on social media with the Arabic hashtag "houses instead of tents".

The images of displaced families resonated with Palestinians because they had suffered as refugees living in tents for years, said Khalil, after they were forced from their homes or fled in the war that surrounded Israel's creation in 1948.

The war in Syria, which spiraled out of an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule in 2011, caused the world's biggest refugee crisis. The war has killed an estimated half a million people and displaced several million more.



Israeli Military: 5 Soldiers Killed in Combat in South Lebanon

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
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Israeli Military: 5 Soldiers Killed in Combat in South Lebanon

Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Israeli Iron Dome air defense system fires to intercept rockets that were launched from Lebanon, as seen from Haifa, northern Israel, Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Five Israeli soldiers were killed and 16 others wounded in combat in southern Lebanon in recent weeks, the Israeli military said in a statement on Thursday.

Hezbollah leader Naim Kassem said in a speech aired Wednesday that the Lebanese group is open for ceasefire negotiations only once “the enemy stops its aggression.”

His speech marked the 40-day mourning period since former Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in Beirut.

Hezbollah began firing into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Since the conflict erupted, more than 3,000 people have been killed and some 13,600 wounded in Lebanon, the Health Ministry reported.