For the past week in northern Iraq, tens of thousands of Yazidis, a religious minority, have been stranded on the Sinjar Mountain, facing death by starvation or by the Isis jihadis, who awaited them below.

Jerusalem-based NGO Shevet Achim is one of the few organisations to have assisted the charity Kurdistan Save the Children in this crisis, and is providing surgery for Yazidi children suffering from cardiovascular ailments.

Since the crisis began, a small number of Yazidi families have been screened by Shevet Achim in Sulaymaniya, Iraq, and then taken to Israel via Jordan, said the NGO's spokesperson, Madeleine Miles.

"The majority of the patients have been Muslim, and now we have a number of Yazidis, but in the hospital there is no distinction," said Ms Miles, who added that the group has worked with many Israeli hospitals and government workers, who viewed the mission as "an honour".

Since its inception in 1994, the NGO has facilitated the transfer of thousands of children from Gaza, Syria, Jordan and Iraq to Israeli hospitals for life-saving procedures.

At least 500 Yazidis have been murdered, and some buried alive, by Isis, which accuses the ethnic Kurdish group of devil worship.