Israeli doctors screened 40 Iraqi children suffering from heart disease Tuesday – a rare case of direct cooperation between Israel and Iraq. The doctors said they hoped their work would help improve relations between the two Mideast nations and ease tensions between Israel and the rest of the Arab world.

Dr. Sion Houri, director of the pediatric intensive care unit at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, Israel, said he thought “ties and friendship” were being built through his work in Jordan with the Iraqi children

“Our only previous exchanges with the Iraqis are the Scud missiles,” he said, referring to the missiles Iraq, under former dictator Saddam Hussein, fired on Israel during the 1991 Gulf War.

“But the Iraqis we met here have been very receptive and cooperative, which makes me believe that the animosity and war aren’t between the people,” he said as he and two colleagues screened the Iraqi children, who ranged in age from a few months to 14 years old.

Abu Ahmed, 36, a taxi driver from the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, said his 12-year-old daughter, Basita, underwent a successful surgery in Israel last year.

“The Israeli doctors, bless their hearts, stitched a notch in her heart,” he said. “They told me today that she recovered completely, and I’m grateful to them and their country for helping us out.”

“They (Israelis) are not our enemies,” he said. “They helped me a lot and didn’t make me feel like they were enemies. Many Muslims have a wrong idea about Israelis.”

The heart program is sponsored by Save a Child’s Heart, a humanitarian organization founded in Israel in 1996.

(Source: Associated Press)