Israeli woman rescued from Syria had history of border crossing: ‘No fence will stop me’

Woman who was returned last week in a prisoner exchange appeared to be obsessed with crossing the border.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

The Israeli woman who was returned from Syria last week appears to have been obsessed with crossing the border into the enemy country, Channel 13 reported Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman whose name has not yet been released had apparently posted on her Facebook page that “no fence will stop me,” the report said.

The woman had also documented herself hiking near Jericho and posted “even if I die tomorrow, until the last moment I will be free.”

No reason has been reported yet on why the woman, a resident of the predominantly Jewish ultra-Orthodox town of Modi’in Ilit, crossed into Syria a few weeks ago, walking through the steep mountain area near Mount Hermon where there is no border fence.

After arriving in a Syrian village near the border with Israel, the locals discovered that she was Israeli and handed her over to the Syrian security forces, Walla News reported. Israel found out about the incident via a dialog with the Russian government, which is heavily supporting Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

After being interrogated by the Syrians, they soon realized that she was not a spy and decided to reach a deal brokered by Moscow in which Israel agreed to purchase Russian coronavirus vaccines for Syria, the report said.

The Iran-backed Hamas terror group holds two Israelis hostage. They entered the Gaza Strip voluntarily and had a history of mental problems. The young woman who entered Syria also tried to enter the Gaza Strip at least twice herself.

In the deal, Israel released two Syrian prisoners, Muhammad Hussein and Tariq al-Abidan, and commuted the sentence of Nihal al-Makat of the Druze town of Majdal Shams on the Syrian border, who had been convicted of anti-Israel incitement.

However, another prisoner, convicted terrorist Diyab Qahmuz, who was sentenced to 14 years in jail for helping the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon, refused to be deported to Damascus and preferred to stay in jail in Israel.

Qahmuz apparently feared the interrogation he would likely have received by Syria’s intelligence agency, an interrogation that is known to include “first of all beatings and torture, and then they start to talk,” Channel 13 reported.