Israeli soldier helps Arab girl in tender moment

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Stories highlighting turmoil and violence in the Middle East fill news feeds and social media threads have become all-too-common. That’s why a recent snap of an Israeli soldier sharing his food with a young Arab girl can instil us with hope for humanity.

Stand With Us, a pro-Israel organization that provides educational material on the Arab-Israeli conflict, posted the touching photo of the soldier offering cereal to the girl on Facebook. In its short digital life, it has already received about 17,000 likes.

Evyatar Ofri of the Israel Defence Force (IDF) told Stand With Us that he noticed the girl rummaging through garbage in the desert.

“She was standing there with her two donkeys, looking for food in the garbage, and having no success,” Ofri told Stand With Us.

“She was wearing rags and a smile, barefoot with wild hair, yet at the same time very cute. I asked her what her name was in Arabic: Ranin.”

Ofri then ran back to his camp where he took a box of his favourite cereal, which he offered to the girl.

“The smile that she had on her face made my day, and even with the language barrier we understood each other,” Ofri said, according to the Facebook post.

“In that moment, this little girl reminded me that behind every religion, race or gender there are people, and human beings that just want to be happy and live peacefully, and we should never forget that being human comes before every conflict.“