Israel will take in 100 Syrian orphans despite the two countries officially being at war, the interior ministry said Thursday, in the first such move since the uprising began in Syria. The children will be given temporary documents for four years and later receive full citizenship, a ministry spokesman said, confirming a report on Channel 10 television.
The report said authorities will seek to have the orphans adopted mostly by Arab Israelis, who represent around 17.5 percent of the population of the majority Jewish country.
Family members of the orphans, such as brothers and sisters, could also later be granted refugee status.
Israel will co-ordinate the arrival of children with international organisations working in Syria, where the civil war has killed more than 310,000 people since it began in 2011.
Gal Lusky, head of the Israel Flying Aid charity, said initial hopes had been for 1,000 orphans but welcomed the move as the result of a wide coalition of political bodies and charities.
"It is important to care for the needy. If some good Christians hadn't done the same for us (Jews) during the Second World War we would be a lot fewer people here."