25 jan 2014
Five Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk refugee camp, south of Damascus, died over the past 24 hours, one of them by sniper fire and four others out of hunger. The action group for Palestinians of Syria said in a statement on Saturday that Mustafa Al-Bahtiti was killed at the hands of a sniper in Yarmouk refugee camp.
It added that four other refugees, including a woman, died of malnutrition and dehydration in addition to absence of medical services due to the siege imposed on the camp for the past 196 days.
It said that Syrian warplanes dropped barrels laden with explosives on farms surrounding Khan Al-Sheeh refugee camp causing vast destruction but no casualties.
The group warned of the serious economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in all refugee camps, adding that they were forced to sell their homes at very low prices just to flee the camps and seek safer areas.
Drought, shooting take lives of four Palestinians in Syria
Four Palestinian refugees on Friday died due to the continued blockade and air attacks on the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Action Group for the Palestinians in Syria said in a statement that “Zahra al-Zain, 68, Abdul-Aziz al-Khadraa, and Said al-Bash died after contracting drought-induced malnutrition and illnesses as a result of the blockade of the Yarmouk refugee camp,”
While Mustafa Bahteiti died of wounds he sustained after being shot by a sniper in the camp, according to the group.
“A state of panic and fear overwhelmed the residents of the Khan al-Shiekh refugee camp struck twice by Syria army warplanes, where witnesses observed the drop of a number of explosive barrels on the farms surrounding the camp,” the statement said.
“The Khan al-Shiekh refugees complained of UNRWA’s failure to assume its responsibilities towards them, as they said, it closed its offices in the camp and relocated its infirmary the Artouz town, the only medical care facility in the town,”
The statement pointed to an aggravating humanitarian situation given the severe shortage of medicines.
The group recently issued a report stating that 57 Palestinian refugees in al-Yarmouk refugee camp died of starvation, hunger-related illnesses and lack of medical aids.
The 57 died in the period between November 1, 2013 to January 19, 2014 due to due to the gripping siege imposed on the camp by Syrian army for 191 consecutive days.
It added that four other refugees, including a woman, died of malnutrition and dehydration in addition to absence of medical services due to the siege imposed on the camp for the past 196 days.
It said that Syrian warplanes dropped barrels laden with explosives on farms surrounding Khan Al-Sheeh refugee camp causing vast destruction but no casualties.
The group warned of the serious economic conditions of Palestinian refugees in all refugee camps, adding that they were forced to sell their homes at very low prices just to flee the camps and seek safer areas.
Drought, shooting take lives of four Palestinians in Syria
Four Palestinian refugees on Friday died due to the continued blockade and air attacks on the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Action Group for the Palestinians in Syria said in a statement that “Zahra al-Zain, 68, Abdul-Aziz al-Khadraa, and Said al-Bash died after contracting drought-induced malnutrition and illnesses as a result of the blockade of the Yarmouk refugee camp,”
While Mustafa Bahteiti died of wounds he sustained after being shot by a sniper in the camp, according to the group.
“A state of panic and fear overwhelmed the residents of the Khan al-Shiekh refugee camp struck twice by Syria army warplanes, where witnesses observed the drop of a number of explosive barrels on the farms surrounding the camp,” the statement said.
“The Khan al-Shiekh refugees complained of UNRWA’s failure to assume its responsibilities towards them, as they said, it closed its offices in the camp and relocated its infirmary the Artouz town, the only medical care facility in the town,”
The statement pointed to an aggravating humanitarian situation given the severe shortage of medicines.
The group recently issued a report stating that 57 Palestinian refugees in al-Yarmouk refugee camp died of starvation, hunger-related illnesses and lack of medical aids.
The 57 died in the period between November 1, 2013 to January 19, 2014 due to due to the gripping siege imposed on the camp by Syrian army for 191 consecutive days.
The families of hunger striking employees of the UN agency for Palestine refugees said Saturday that UNRWA would be held responsible for any harm to the strikers' health.
Family dignitaries told Ma'an that they would "sue the UNRWA administration at all international levels" if necessary.
The hunger strikers' demands are "just," and they are supported by their families, the dignitaries said.
They urged the Palestinian Authority to pressure UNRWA to comply with the demands of the strikers.
A group of former UNRWA employees who were laid off at the end of 2013 have been on hunger strike for as many as 28 days, demanding their jobs back and a raise in salaries for Palestinian UNRWA workers.
In addition to the hunger strikers, Palestinian UNRWA employees have been on strike for nearly two months in protest of low salaries and UNRWA policies regarding employees who are detained by the Israeli military.
On Thursday, UNRWA's administration and unions met in an effort to end the strike, which has kept schools closed and severely limited provisions of basic services to Palestinian refugee camps.
UNRWA is the UN agency originally set up in 1949 to ensure relief and development for the Palestinian refugees expelled from what became the State of Israel in 1948.
Today, the agency provides health care, education, social services, and other forms of aid to nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees.
Family dignitaries told Ma'an that they would "sue the UNRWA administration at all international levels" if necessary.
The hunger strikers' demands are "just," and they are supported by their families, the dignitaries said.
They urged the Palestinian Authority to pressure UNRWA to comply with the demands of the strikers.
A group of former UNRWA employees who were laid off at the end of 2013 have been on hunger strike for as many as 28 days, demanding their jobs back and a raise in salaries for Palestinian UNRWA workers.
In addition to the hunger strikers, Palestinian UNRWA employees have been on strike for nearly two months in protest of low salaries and UNRWA policies regarding employees who are detained by the Israeli military.
On Thursday, UNRWA's administration and unions met in an effort to end the strike, which has kept schools closed and severely limited provisions of basic services to Palestinian refugee camps.
UNRWA is the UN agency originally set up in 1949 to ensure relief and development for the Palestinian refugees expelled from what became the State of Israel in 1948.
Today, the agency provides health care, education, social services, and other forms of aid to nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees.
24 jan 2014
Syrian Red Crescent workers evacuate children from the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of the Syrian capital Damascus on January 19, 2014
A Syrian monitoring group said Friday it has documented the deaths of 63 people, including women and children, in the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus because of food and medical shortages.
Yarmouk in southern Damascus has been under a choking army siege since June, along with several other opposition-held areas across Syria, mostly around the capital and in the central city of Homs.
"The number of people who have died in Yarmuk camp as a result of their poor health and living conditions, and the severe lack of food and medicine has risen to 63," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Conditions in the camp have deteriorated in recent months, with the price of food and other basic goods skyrocketing, if they were at all available.
"Sixty-one of the dead lost their lives in the past three months," said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and doctors inside the country for its reports.
A Syrian monitoring group said Friday it has documented the deaths of 63 people, including women and children, in the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus because of food and medical shortages.
Yarmouk in southern Damascus has been under a choking army siege since June, along with several other opposition-held areas across Syria, mostly around the capital and in the central city of Homs.
"The number of people who have died in Yarmuk camp as a result of their poor health and living conditions, and the severe lack of food and medicine has risen to 63," the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Conditions in the camp have deteriorated in recent months, with the price of food and other basic goods skyrocketing, if they were at all available.
"Sixty-one of the dead lost their lives in the past three months," said the Observatory, which relies on a network of activists and doctors inside the country for its reports.
Food aid entered Yarmouk last week for the first time in four months.
UN rights chief Navi Pillay has warned blocking assistance to civilians "in desperate need may amount to a war crime."
Activists in other besieged areas have also complained of dismal conditions.
In Homs, activists say hundreds of families have been holed up for nearly 600 days in a handful of districts still held by rebels.
They come under near-daily shelling and activists there say they have run out of most food supplies, and that residents now have little more than olives to survive on.
In a bid to shed light on their circumstances, activists in Homs launched a campaign this week, putting up yellow signposts inscribed with slogans describing life in the rebel areas.
"For two years, 300 children have had no schooling," reads one, according to photographs shared by Homs-based activist Yazan.
"One hundred people need urgent surgery," reads another, held up by a young man on one of Homs' heavily damaged streets.
In the Eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus, conditions of life are also dire, said activist Tareq al-Dimashqi, who spoke to AFP via Skype.
"No one can provide for themselves, and when food does come in, it is at crazy prices," he said.
Meanwhile fighting raged across, Syria the Observatory said, as the so-called Geneva II peace talks offered no respite to the war-torn country.
Government troops shelled the Eastern Ghouta area where rebels were battling regime forces backed by Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and the Iraqi Abul Fadl al-Abbas brigade.
Clashes continued in the historic Old City area of Aleppo, Syria's onetime commercial capital, now ruined a year and a half on from a massive rebel offensive.
Syria's war has killed more than 130,000 people in nearly three years, and forced millions more to flee their homes.
UN rights chief Navi Pillay has warned blocking assistance to civilians "in desperate need may amount to a war crime."
Activists in other besieged areas have also complained of dismal conditions.
In Homs, activists say hundreds of families have been holed up for nearly 600 days in a handful of districts still held by rebels.
They come under near-daily shelling and activists there say they have run out of most food supplies, and that residents now have little more than olives to survive on.
In a bid to shed light on their circumstances, activists in Homs launched a campaign this week, putting up yellow signposts inscribed with slogans describing life in the rebel areas.
"For two years, 300 children have had no schooling," reads one, according to photographs shared by Homs-based activist Yazan.
"One hundred people need urgent surgery," reads another, held up by a young man on one of Homs' heavily damaged streets.
In the Eastern Ghouta area east of Damascus, conditions of life are also dire, said activist Tareq al-Dimashqi, who spoke to AFP via Skype.
"No one can provide for themselves, and when food does come in, it is at crazy prices," he said.
Meanwhile fighting raged across, Syria the Observatory said, as the so-called Geneva II peace talks offered no respite to the war-torn country.
Government troops shelled the Eastern Ghouta area where rebels were battling regime forces backed by Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah and the Iraqi Abul Fadl al-Abbas brigade.
Clashes continued in the historic Old City area of Aleppo, Syria's onetime commercial capital, now ruined a year and a half on from a massive rebel offensive.
Syria's war has killed more than 130,000 people in nearly three years, and forced millions more to flee their homes.
23 jan 2014
The Palestinian Department of Refugee Affairs on Thursday hosted a meeting between the UN Palestine refugee agency's administration and representatives of its Palestinian unions.
UNRWA's administration and unions met in an effort to end an ongoing strike that has kept schools closed for nearly two months and severely limited provisions of basic services to Palestinian refugee camps.
The general director of the Department of Refugee Affairs told Ma'an that the Palestinian Authority had adopted an initiative penned by the Ministry of Labor to end the strike.
Ahmad Hannoun said that the PA was waiting on a response from UNRWA General Commissioner Filippo Grandi, without providing further details.
The strike will continue until an official response is received, Hannoun said.
The director of UNRWA's West Bank operations, Filipe Sanchez, has already accepted the initiative, according to a statement from the Department of Refugee Affairs.
UNRWA is the UN agency originally set up in 1949 to ensure relief and development for the Palestinian refugees expelled from what became the State of Israel in 1948.
Today, the agency provides health care, education, social services, and other forms of aid to nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees.
UNRWA's administration and unions met in an effort to end an ongoing strike that has kept schools closed for nearly two months and severely limited provisions of basic services to Palestinian refugee camps.
The general director of the Department of Refugee Affairs told Ma'an that the Palestinian Authority had adopted an initiative penned by the Ministry of Labor to end the strike.
Ahmad Hannoun said that the PA was waiting on a response from UNRWA General Commissioner Filippo Grandi, without providing further details.
The strike will continue until an official response is received, Hannoun said.
The director of UNRWA's West Bank operations, Filipe Sanchez, has already accepted the initiative, according to a statement from the Department of Refugee Affairs.
UNRWA is the UN agency originally set up in 1949 to ensure relief and development for the Palestinian refugees expelled from what became the State of Israel in 1948.
Today, the agency provides health care, education, social services, and other forms of aid to nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees.
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Shocking pictures tortured Palestinians in Yarmouk
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The action group for the Palestinians in Syria said that two Palestinian refugees died on Wednesday in a Syrian detention center after they were exposed to excruciating torture at the hands of interrogators. The action group stated on Thursday that the brothers Mahmoud and Mohamed Abdul-Hafiz, Palestinian refugees living in Tadmur town died of torture in a Syrian jail.
It added that a Syrian security apparatus kidnapped another Palestinian young man, a resident of Al-Aydoun refugee camp in Hama city and took him to an unknown place. The group also said that the humanitarian situation in Al-Yarmouk refugee camp is still very difficult, and the relief efforts have stopped. It explained that the UNRWA stopped the distribution of food parcels after its relief workers claimed their exposure to maltreatment by the Palestinian refugees in Al-Yarmouk camp. However, the group affirmed that the refugees in the camp were exposed to humiliation by the UNRWA relief workers. |
It said that many Yarmouk families complained about a delay in the delivery of humanitarian aid and making them wait in lines for very long hours without getting anything, adding that the UNRWA workers also refuse to give anything without writing numbers on wrists or hands of every one who receives aid.
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The United Nations is calling on all parties in Syria to facilitate provision of humanitarian aid to Palestinians trapped in Yarmouk refugee camp.
The inhabitants of the camp has been besieged for months whilst the conflict in Syria has continued. “The humanitarian community has continued to attempt to take desperately needed food to thousands of people trapped in Yarmouk, amid reports of children with malnutrition and women dying during childbirth because of a lack of medical services,” said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness. |
He added, “UNRWA made another attempt to deliver food Tuesday, but after waiting all day was permitted to deliver only 26 food parcels, which means to date, we have delivered just a few hundred food parcels.”
The situation is compounded by the lack of electricity and severe shortage of water. Civilians also continue to be killed by ongoing fighting and sporadic aerial attacks, the UN news office had noted.
UNRWA will continue to raise these issues at the highest levels with the Syrian Government, while continuing to deliver aid from the distribution point inside Yarmouk in the coming days.
The situation is compounded by the lack of electricity and severe shortage of water. Civilians also continue to be killed by ongoing fighting and sporadic aerial attacks, the UN news office had noted.
UNRWA will continue to raise these issues at the highest levels with the Syrian Government, while continuing to deliver aid from the distribution point inside Yarmouk in the coming days.
By Rana Abdulla
Of all the privations in the modern world, some of which can be overcome, admittedly with difficulty, such things as the lack of electricity and gas for heating or cooking although we take for granted are not necessarily prerequisites for a life of sorts, yet all would agree, what cannot be endured in any measure is the deprivation of water, food and sanitary conditions. Such is the lot of Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp.
Dehydration, disease and penury are daily reality for a people the world has forgotten or seem to little care. To see a child die of starvation, any child let alone one of your own is a sorrow no one should ever bear, yet this is an everyday occurrence in the Yarmouth refugee camp.
People in Yarmouk camp in Syria are forced to consume grass, leaves, animal feed and literally anything they can find to slake their thirst or assuage their hunger, irrespective of their fitness for human consumption. It is difficult to find words to adequately describing the exact misery of the Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk camp after 180 + days of sealed siege by the pitiless forces of the Syrian regime. It is difficult to understand why the world has turned its back on these brothers and sisters who are forced to live in such dismal conditions. Despite the conflict which is not the cause or the desire of its residence there have been many opportunities for the international community to administer humanitarian aid to Yarmouk, yet none has been forthcoming. Why is the world, even the Arab world treating the occupants of Yarmouk with such indifference?
The prevailing situation of the Palestinians in Syria should be heartbreaking for every human being who has knowledge of it. If the terrifying hazards of a war zone were not enough for the Palestinian refugees, the added visitation of hunger and disease in the camp, is a shameful slap in the face of the so called civilized world. Yarmouk, no doubt, along with notable other instances, is paying the heaviest price for Syria’s war. There have been a number of reports of Palestinian refugees dying in the Yarmouk camp from starvation. These include children as young as a mere few months old. The television pictures coming out of Yarmouk of starving women and children are nothing short of excruciating to right minded people. Yet the world and especially the Arab world appear unconcerned with the plight of these innocent Palestinians caught up in a conflict not of their making.
Latest reports by activists on the ground detail the death of at least 40 people from starvation already this year, and the count is increasing day by day. Located in the south of Damascus, the Yarmouk refugee camp initially housed 250,000 Palestinian refugees out of which 150,000 were registered with the Syrian government. However, after three years of a bloody and brutal civil war, Yarmouk has been reduced to ruins and only about 18,000 refugees remain. The others it is thought have managed to escape mainly to Jordan or Lebanon. A BBC report claimed that the Yarmouk camp gates have been closed to all traffic, including aid since July, and no help has reached the beleaguered people since then.
Besides the 1,500 Palestinians that are confirmed killed in the ongoing conflict, several others have been wounded and if that were not enough, the already perilous situation is set to worsen and one can only wonder as to the eventual end to the suffering these unfortunate Palestinian people. As if it were not enough to be made a refugee once, but to seek refuge from a refuge is surely an evil beyond mere fortune. A larger number of refugees have fled from Syria nearby areas along with the vast majority being displaced inside Syria itself. The migration itself is a damning indictment of the regions prevailing troubles, however equally culpable in this ongoing disaster is the staggering indifference of the other prosperous Arab nations beyond the immediate local.
The Yarmouk refugee camp is today at the heart of the Palestinian narrative tragedy, even though located in Syria, it has remained the most salient and articulate commentary on the Palestinian situation. One of the reasons for this is the fact that this Palestinian base has been used by Syrian rebels as a point of contact with the outside world for the past six months. This is partly due to the fact that the refugee camp is seen as almost autonomous from Syrian rule, therefore presenting the rebels with a base beyond Syrian government control.
Yet beyond the current conflict the Syrian government is one of the few in the region to provide any sort of a refuge for Palestinians. Compared to some other Arab countries where standards are very poor. However, even in Syria thousands of refugees have become victims of the adverse political machinations and sectarian conflicts that tend to flare-up from time to time in the region. That said, the current conflict is easily the worst faced by the camp. In Dec 2012, the Yarmouk camp was taken over by the Free Syrian Army followed by fierce fighting, after which the camp was bombarded from the air by the government killing dozens while thousands were forced to flee for their lives.
Although the signs of danger for the Palestinians refugees were very obvious, it was some time before the Palestinian leadership decided to negotiate for the designation of a special status, for the Yarmouk camp for refugees in the hope of keeping them out of Syria’s conflict. They agreed that refugees should not be used as fodder in the war in Syria, however all attempts to implement and maintain agreement have thus far failed.
The failure in this regard is not limited to the Palestinian leadership or the Syrian government alone, rather the international community too has failed to recognize the gravity of the situation and the whole episode is proving to be a shameful failure. The international community can quite rightly militate loudly against the mere mention of Assad’s use of the chemical weapon, but the daily dying and starvation of refugees seems to be a humanitarian crisis too far, or insignificant for positive action. It is a shameful indictment on the compassion of the international community that this deepening crisis in the Syrian conflict has received such little attention. There has not even been a resolution by the UN concerning Yarmouk, and as such one has to question the regard for the value of a Palestinian refugee’s life, in the grand scheme of things.
Meanwhile the Palestinian government is arranging more peace talks and it is very difficult to holdout any hope for their success. Palestinian refugee camps are starving to death and their problems are hardly a priority.
Presently the Palestinian refugees have no political representation, no legal status, no international support and no true leadership dedicated to solving their most pressing issues. Palestinian refugees were initially dispossessed by Israel in 1948, and have since been suffering equally at the hands of the Arab countries as well. These countries have also proved to be as inhospitable and unwelcoming to the refugees of Palestine.
There have been numerous instances which have suggested that Arab countries and militias have in the past perpetrated massacres on the Palestinian people. Even though many Arab peoples have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, their acts have often suggested otherwise. Nothing has been done politically or practically as the population of Yarmouk has shrunk from 250,000 to 18,000 souls cowering, famished and shivering with pain, starvation and cold. Not only is the Arab world indifferent to the whole situation, one Lebanese journalist has been callus enough to put into the words what certain leaders believe but shrink from saying, ‘the whole situation is the responsibility of Palestinians themselves’.
Irrespective of the brutal non-response of the world the seeds of the whole scenario can be found in the Balfour declaration all those years ago, and the responsibility should be shared not only by the Israelis and their illegal occupation but by the entire international community.
Of all the privations in the modern world, some of which can be overcome, admittedly with difficulty, such things as the lack of electricity and gas for heating or cooking although we take for granted are not necessarily prerequisites for a life of sorts, yet all would agree, what cannot be endured in any measure is the deprivation of water, food and sanitary conditions. Such is the lot of Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp.
Dehydration, disease and penury are daily reality for a people the world has forgotten or seem to little care. To see a child die of starvation, any child let alone one of your own is a sorrow no one should ever bear, yet this is an everyday occurrence in the Yarmouth refugee camp.
People in Yarmouk camp in Syria are forced to consume grass, leaves, animal feed and literally anything they can find to slake their thirst or assuage their hunger, irrespective of their fitness for human consumption. It is difficult to find words to adequately describing the exact misery of the Palestinian refugees in the Yarmouk camp after 180 + days of sealed siege by the pitiless forces of the Syrian regime. It is difficult to understand why the world has turned its back on these brothers and sisters who are forced to live in such dismal conditions. Despite the conflict which is not the cause or the desire of its residence there have been many opportunities for the international community to administer humanitarian aid to Yarmouk, yet none has been forthcoming. Why is the world, even the Arab world treating the occupants of Yarmouk with such indifference?
The prevailing situation of the Palestinians in Syria should be heartbreaking for every human being who has knowledge of it. If the terrifying hazards of a war zone were not enough for the Palestinian refugees, the added visitation of hunger and disease in the camp, is a shameful slap in the face of the so called civilized world. Yarmouk, no doubt, along with notable other instances, is paying the heaviest price for Syria’s war. There have been a number of reports of Palestinian refugees dying in the Yarmouk camp from starvation. These include children as young as a mere few months old. The television pictures coming out of Yarmouk of starving women and children are nothing short of excruciating to right minded people. Yet the world and especially the Arab world appear unconcerned with the plight of these innocent Palestinians caught up in a conflict not of their making.
Latest reports by activists on the ground detail the death of at least 40 people from starvation already this year, and the count is increasing day by day. Located in the south of Damascus, the Yarmouk refugee camp initially housed 250,000 Palestinian refugees out of which 150,000 were registered with the Syrian government. However, after three years of a bloody and brutal civil war, Yarmouk has been reduced to ruins and only about 18,000 refugees remain. The others it is thought have managed to escape mainly to Jordan or Lebanon. A BBC report claimed that the Yarmouk camp gates have been closed to all traffic, including aid since July, and no help has reached the beleaguered people since then.
Besides the 1,500 Palestinians that are confirmed killed in the ongoing conflict, several others have been wounded and if that were not enough, the already perilous situation is set to worsen and one can only wonder as to the eventual end to the suffering these unfortunate Palestinian people. As if it were not enough to be made a refugee once, but to seek refuge from a refuge is surely an evil beyond mere fortune. A larger number of refugees have fled from Syria nearby areas along with the vast majority being displaced inside Syria itself. The migration itself is a damning indictment of the regions prevailing troubles, however equally culpable in this ongoing disaster is the staggering indifference of the other prosperous Arab nations beyond the immediate local.
The Yarmouk refugee camp is today at the heart of the Palestinian narrative tragedy, even though located in Syria, it has remained the most salient and articulate commentary on the Palestinian situation. One of the reasons for this is the fact that this Palestinian base has been used by Syrian rebels as a point of contact with the outside world for the past six months. This is partly due to the fact that the refugee camp is seen as almost autonomous from Syrian rule, therefore presenting the rebels with a base beyond Syrian government control.
Yet beyond the current conflict the Syrian government is one of the few in the region to provide any sort of a refuge for Palestinians. Compared to some other Arab countries where standards are very poor. However, even in Syria thousands of refugees have become victims of the adverse political machinations and sectarian conflicts that tend to flare-up from time to time in the region. That said, the current conflict is easily the worst faced by the camp. In Dec 2012, the Yarmouk camp was taken over by the Free Syrian Army followed by fierce fighting, after which the camp was bombarded from the air by the government killing dozens while thousands were forced to flee for their lives.
Although the signs of danger for the Palestinians refugees were very obvious, it was some time before the Palestinian leadership decided to negotiate for the designation of a special status, for the Yarmouk camp for refugees in the hope of keeping them out of Syria’s conflict. They agreed that refugees should not be used as fodder in the war in Syria, however all attempts to implement and maintain agreement have thus far failed.
The failure in this regard is not limited to the Palestinian leadership or the Syrian government alone, rather the international community too has failed to recognize the gravity of the situation and the whole episode is proving to be a shameful failure. The international community can quite rightly militate loudly against the mere mention of Assad’s use of the chemical weapon, but the daily dying and starvation of refugees seems to be a humanitarian crisis too far, or insignificant for positive action. It is a shameful indictment on the compassion of the international community that this deepening crisis in the Syrian conflict has received such little attention. There has not even been a resolution by the UN concerning Yarmouk, and as such one has to question the regard for the value of a Palestinian refugee’s life, in the grand scheme of things.
Meanwhile the Palestinian government is arranging more peace talks and it is very difficult to holdout any hope for their success. Palestinian refugee camps are starving to death and their problems are hardly a priority.
Presently the Palestinian refugees have no political representation, no legal status, no international support and no true leadership dedicated to solving their most pressing issues. Palestinian refugees were initially dispossessed by Israel in 1948, and have since been suffering equally at the hands of the Arab countries as well. These countries have also proved to be as inhospitable and unwelcoming to the refugees of Palestine.
There have been numerous instances which have suggested that Arab countries and militias have in the past perpetrated massacres on the Palestinian people. Even though many Arab peoples have expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, their acts have often suggested otherwise. Nothing has been done politically or practically as the population of Yarmouk has shrunk from 250,000 to 18,000 souls cowering, famished and shivering with pain, starvation and cold. Not only is the Arab world indifferent to the whole situation, one Lebanese journalist has been callus enough to put into the words what certain leaders believe but shrink from saying, ‘the whole situation is the responsibility of Palestinians themselves’.
Irrespective of the brutal non-response of the world the seeds of the whole scenario can be found in the Balfour declaration all those years ago, and the responsibility should be shared not only by the Israelis and their illegal occupation but by the entire international community.
22 jan 2014
57 Palestinian refugees ,in Yarmouk refugee camp, died of starvation, hunger-related illnesses and lack of medical aids due to the siege imposed on the camp by Syrian regime army and other forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad regime for 191 consecutive days, right group reported. Action Group for Palestinians in Syria said that the 57 died in the period between 11/2013 to 19th , Jan, 2014.
Regarding food aids that entered to the camp, activists in the camp said that only 105 food parcels entered the camp and hundreds of families still without any food .
In its statement the group also stated that Dra’ah refugee camp has been under siege since three weeks and the people are suffering from hunger and shortage of water and electricity.
Some 160,000 Palestinians once lived in Yarmouk, a strategic prize for rebels and Assad forces for its close proximity to Damascus. They remained mostly neutral when the uprising began against Assad’s rule in March 2011.
But clashes erupted between pro- and anti-Assad Palestinian gunmen in December 2012, and most residents fled. The poorest, some 18,000 people, remained behind, according to UN estimates, along with tens of thousands of Syrians displaced from rebel-held areas that were seized back by the regime.
Pro-Assad Palestinian factions set up checkpoints around Yarmouk and progressively tightened a blockade of the area. By September, they banned residents from leaving, or food from entering.
It also meant residents couldn’t reach UN aid that was distributed outside the camp. The UN stopped operating inside Yarmouk in December, because of the fighting.
Regarding food aids that entered to the camp, activists in the camp said that only 105 food parcels entered the camp and hundreds of families still without any food .
In its statement the group also stated that Dra’ah refugee camp has been under siege since three weeks and the people are suffering from hunger and shortage of water and electricity.
Some 160,000 Palestinians once lived in Yarmouk, a strategic prize for rebels and Assad forces for its close proximity to Damascus. They remained mostly neutral when the uprising began against Assad’s rule in March 2011.
But clashes erupted between pro- and anti-Assad Palestinian gunmen in December 2012, and most residents fled. The poorest, some 18,000 people, remained behind, according to UN estimates, along with tens of thousands of Syrians displaced from rebel-held areas that were seized back by the regime.
Pro-Assad Palestinian factions set up checkpoints around Yarmouk and progressively tightened a blockade of the area. By September, they banned residents from leaving, or food from entering.
It also meant residents couldn’t reach UN aid that was distributed outside the camp. The UN stopped operating inside Yarmouk in December, because of the fighting.
21 jan 2014
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unidentified girl
Six Palestinian refugees were killed on Monday in airstrikes by Syrian regime forces on Daraa refugee camp in southern Syria, a Palestinian watchdog said.
The Syria-based Workforce for Palestinians in Syria said in a statement received by Ma'an that the victims of the strikes were four children and two men.
The two men were identified as Hasan Ruweili, Athab Khalifa and the children as Omar Ruweili, Ammar Yasser Theib, Shadi Barmawi and an unidentified girl.
All victims are from the Daraa refugee camp just north of the Jordanian border.
The statement also discussed the entry of aid into Yarmouk refugee camp, highlighting that 400 food packages had been sent into the camp.
However, the statement added that only 62 families had received food aid because of the "complicated security procedures" that accompany the distribution process.
At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Syria conflict, and around 250,000 Palestinian refugees have been forced to leave their homes in Syria due to violence in the country.
Prior to the conflict, 600,000 Palestinian refugees lived in Syria.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
Six Palestinian refugees were killed on Monday in airstrikes by Syrian regime forces on Daraa refugee camp in southern Syria, a Palestinian watchdog said.
The Syria-based Workforce for Palestinians in Syria said in a statement received by Ma'an that the victims of the strikes were four children and two men.
The two men were identified as Hasan Ruweili, Athab Khalifa and the children as Omar Ruweili, Ammar Yasser Theib, Shadi Barmawi and an unidentified girl.
All victims are from the Daraa refugee camp just north of the Jordanian border.
The statement also discussed the entry of aid into Yarmouk refugee camp, highlighting that 400 food packages had been sent into the camp.
However, the statement added that only 62 families had received food aid because of the "complicated security procedures" that accompany the distribution process.
At least 1,500 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing Syria conflict, and around 250,000 Palestinian refugees have been forced to leave their homes in Syria due to violence in the country.
Prior to the conflict, 600,000 Palestinian refugees lived in Syria.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
A group of Palestinian children in Nablus district managed to collect around $33,000 in donations for the besieged Yarmouk camp in Syria.
The group of children opened the donation boxes they used in public after a week of fundraising in Nablus.
Nablus governor Jibril al-Bakri praised the actions of the children on behalf of the Yarmouk camp. Al-Bakri thanked individuals and groups who helped organize the campaign.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
The group of children opened the donation boxes they used in public after a week of fundraising in Nablus.
Nablus governor Jibril al-Bakri praised the actions of the children on behalf of the Yarmouk camp. Al-Bakri thanked individuals and groups who helped organize the campaign.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
20 jan 2014
Working group for the Palestinians in Syria stated that 30 Palestinian refugees died in Syria during the past week, including 12 who died of hunger in the Yarmouk refugee camp. The group said in a press release on Monday that two Palestinian refugees were killed on Sunday in the city of Adra and in the city of Aleppo, due to the continuation of clashes between the Regular Army and groups of the Free Army.
It added that Syria camps have been exposed to continuous shelling during the last week, which killed five refugees in the Yarmouk camp.
The activists reported that 57 Palestinians died in the Yarmouk because of the siege that has been imposed on the camp for about seven months, and confirmed that the refugees there have not received the aid, which was scheduled to arrive on Sunday to the camp.
They added that two refugees from the Aydin camp in Hama were arrested by Syrian security forces, while two young men from the Yarmouk camp have been missing.
Meanwhile, 10 solidarity activists in Berlin continued their hunger strike for the third day in solidarity with the Yarmouk refugee camp, while several German cities witnessed vigils demanding the entry of aid into the camp.
A number of Palestinians in Lebanon have also organized a protest in front of the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut, in solidarity with those besieged in the Yarmouk refugee camp.
In Bahrain, al-Eslah Society has launched a campaign to collect donations for the relief of the Yarmouk camp.
The Gaza Strip has also witnessed a march on Sunday in solidarity with the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria.
It added that Syria camps have been exposed to continuous shelling during the last week, which killed five refugees in the Yarmouk camp.
The activists reported that 57 Palestinians died in the Yarmouk because of the siege that has been imposed on the camp for about seven months, and confirmed that the refugees there have not received the aid, which was scheduled to arrive on Sunday to the camp.
They added that two refugees from the Aydin camp in Hama were arrested by Syrian security forces, while two young men from the Yarmouk camp have been missing.
Meanwhile, 10 solidarity activists in Berlin continued their hunger strike for the third day in solidarity with the Yarmouk refugee camp, while several German cities witnessed vigils demanding the entry of aid into the camp.
A number of Palestinians in Lebanon have also organized a protest in front of the ESCWA headquarters in Beirut, in solidarity with those besieged in the Yarmouk refugee camp.
In Bahrain, al-Eslah Society has launched a campaign to collect donations for the relief of the Yarmouk camp.
The Gaza Strip has also witnessed a march on Sunday in solidarity with the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria.
19 jan 2014
Seventy three prisoners from Jerusalem and the 1948 lands announced on Sunday that they donated amounts of money from their monthly salaries to support our people in the sieged refugee camp of Al-Yarmook.
Naser Qos said that he received a letter that was signed by the 73 prisoners saying that they each donated 500 NIS from their monthly salaries to support our people in Al-Yarmook camp.
Qos explained that this initiative included prisoner from all Palestinian parties and he praised this solidarity with the Palestinian refugees in Al-Yarmook camp.
Naser Qos said that he received a letter that was signed by the 73 prisoners saying that they each donated 500 NIS from their monthly salaries to support our people in Al-Yarmook camp.
Qos explained that this initiative included prisoner from all Palestinian parties and he praised this solidarity with the Palestinian refugees in Al-Yarmook camp.
The United Nations considered that impeding convoys bringing aid to the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria may amount to a war crime. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said: “Over the past four months numerous attempts by the UN and other organizations to bring convoys of food and medical aid to malnourished children, women and elderly people close to starvation in Yarmouk, have been thwarted, and very little aid was getting through during the nine months prior to that."
Ms. Pillay highlighted that starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited under international law and may amount to a war crime.
She stressed that objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, are protected under international law, and added that "attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless such objects are prohibited."
A news release issued by the High Commissioner’s office (OHCHR) said there have been reports of a number of deaths from starvation, as well as from the consumption of rotten food, and because of the chronic shortage of medical supplies and expertise for sick and injured people and pregnant women trapped in the camp.
The UN added that the situation is compounded by the lack of electricity and severe shortage of water and that the civilians also continue to be killed by ongoing fighting and sporadic aerial attacks.
The siege imposed on the Yarmouk camp for nearly 190 days caused the death of more than 54 refugees of hunger.
For its part, Thabet organization for the right of return stressed that it supports and will participate in the popular movement, organized by the Committee of Palestinians of Syria in Lebanon in collaboration with civil and human rights institutions in solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Yarmouk camp.
Thabet in a statement called for putting an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people in Syria camps, lifting the Yarmouk siege, and neutralizing the camps in the ongoing conflict.
It has also asked the international community and the United Nations organizations, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNRWA, to take serious moves and find means of channeling humanitarian aid to the camp.
The organization called on the United Nations to intervene to lift the siege on the Yarmouk refugee camp and other camps and urged the Arab League to shoulder its responsibilities and protect civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 50 other international human rights organizations, in a joint statement, called on the participants in the Geneva meetings 2 to lift the siege imposed on the Yarmouk camp.
Ms. Pillay highlighted that starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited under international law and may amount to a war crime.
She stressed that objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as foodstuffs, agricultural areas for the production of foodstuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works, are protected under international law, and added that "attacking, destroying, removing or rendering useless such objects are prohibited."
A news release issued by the High Commissioner’s office (OHCHR) said there have been reports of a number of deaths from starvation, as well as from the consumption of rotten food, and because of the chronic shortage of medical supplies and expertise for sick and injured people and pregnant women trapped in the camp.
The UN added that the situation is compounded by the lack of electricity and severe shortage of water and that the civilians also continue to be killed by ongoing fighting and sporadic aerial attacks.
The siege imposed on the Yarmouk camp for nearly 190 days caused the death of more than 54 refugees of hunger.
For its part, Thabet organization for the right of return stressed that it supports and will participate in the popular movement, organized by the Committee of Palestinians of Syria in Lebanon in collaboration with civil and human rights institutions in solidarity with the Palestinians in the besieged Yarmouk camp.
Thabet in a statement called for putting an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people in Syria camps, lifting the Yarmouk siege, and neutralizing the camps in the ongoing conflict.
It has also asked the international community and the United Nations organizations, especially the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNRWA, to take serious moves and find means of channeling humanitarian aid to the camp.
The organization called on the United Nations to intervene to lift the siege on the Yarmouk refugee camp and other camps and urged the Arab League to shoulder its responsibilities and protect civilians in the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria
Meanwhile, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and 50 other international human rights organizations, in a joint statement, called on the participants in the Geneva meetings 2 to lift the siege imposed on the Yarmouk camp.
The action group for the Palestinians in Syria said Saturday that six Palestinian refugees were either killed or died of hunger in Al-Yarmouk refugee camp during the past 24 hours. In a press release, the action group said that two aged man and woman named Yasin Abu Madi and Najah Al-Biqai as well as a young man called Ismail Abdullah had died of hunger and malnutrition as a result of the tight blockade imposed on the camp for more than 189 days by the Syrian regime forces and their militias.
The group added that three other Palestinian refugees from the camp were also killed, one was shot dead by a sniper and another was killed during armed clashes, while the third one was tortured to death inside a Syrian prison.
The group said that the Palestinian refugees in Al-Yarmouk camp organized on Saturday massive protests outside the headquarters of the armed brigades to demand them to leave the camp in order to declare it a demilitarized zone and end the blockade imposed on its residents.
For her part, Amnesty activist Selena Naser described the humanitarian situation in Al-Yarmouk refugee camp as "horrific," saying that the families at the camp collect grass to feed their children.
Naser told Anatolia news agency on Friday that there is no decent food in the camp to keep its population alive any longer.
She added that the refugees, including children and women, eat anything they are able to find and mostly they make grass soup to feed themselves.
The group added that three other Palestinian refugees from the camp were also killed, one was shot dead by a sniper and another was killed during armed clashes, while the third one was tortured to death inside a Syrian prison.
The group said that the Palestinian refugees in Al-Yarmouk camp organized on Saturday massive protests outside the headquarters of the armed brigades to demand them to leave the camp in order to declare it a demilitarized zone and end the blockade imposed on its residents.
For her part, Amnesty activist Selena Naser described the humanitarian situation in Al-Yarmouk refugee camp as "horrific," saying that the families at the camp collect grass to feed their children.
Naser told Anatolia news agency on Friday that there is no decent food in the camp to keep its population alive any longer.
She added that the refugees, including children and women, eat anything they are able to find and mostly they make grass soup to feed themselves.
The UNRWA said that Israel's refusal to allow in building materials through Karam Abu Salem crossing halted its construction projects in the Gaza Strip. Robert Turner, director of UNRWA's operations, said that the agency's projects are worth a quarter billion dollars and have stopped because of the Israeli refusal to allow essential building materials to enter Gaza.
Turner stated in a meeting at the Palestinian businessmen association in Gaza on Saturday that the main problem lies in the failure to bring building materials into Gaza despite the fact that they are used under strict supervision for UNRWA's projects.
As for the local mills which were affected by some Turkish aid of flour, he stated that the UNRWA had to accept the Turkish flour shipments, although this aid was at the expense of the Gazan millers who makes flour after receiving grains from the agency.
Turner stated in a meeting at the Palestinian businessmen association in Gaza on Saturday that the main problem lies in the failure to bring building materials into Gaza despite the fact that they are used under strict supervision for UNRWA's projects.
As for the local mills which were affected by some Turkish aid of flour, he stated that the UNRWA had to accept the Turkish flour shipments, although this aid was at the expense of the Gazan millers who makes flour after receiving grains from the agency.
18 jan 2014
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Palestinian Authority Minister of Labor Ahmed Majdalani said that a convoy with food and medicine had entered Syria's Yarmouk camp on Saturday afternoon as part of a relief agreement for the camp reached on Friday.
Majdalani said that the convoy includes 200 parcels weighing 30 kg each, consisting of basic foodstuffs to help Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk after seven months of siege imposed by regime forces. UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness confirmed that the aid had been successfully received inside the camp as part of a "trial phase" of the agreement. Majdalani said during a press conference at the national information center in Ramallah on Saturday that some of the non-Palestinian armed factions had left the camp starting Friday evening, and that the rest of these factions would leave the camp on Saturday and Sunday. He said that their departure would be followed by more aid convoys on Sunday, including food and medicines, while the evacuation of the sick, injured, and the elderly would begin today in collaboration with the Syrian Ministry of Social Affairs, which will provide shelters for the evacuees. University students, meanwhile, would be evacuated starting Sunday. Majdalani also explained that bulldozers began to remove roadblocks and barriers that had previously blocked major roads linking the camp to the outside world in order to facilitate the delivery of relief convoys and to return life to normal inside the camp. |
He stressed that the fact that "militants barricaded themselves inside the camp was no coincidence," but was primarily a "political act."
He added: "We will work hard to ensure that the Palestinians in Syria remain neutral and outside of the Syrian internal crisis because the Palestinians in Syria are guests and do not interfere in the internal affairs of the host country."
UNRWA is playing 'support role'
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that "Syrian authorities sought UNRWA's support as the neutral, humanitarian agency with a mandate for Palestine refugees. It is important to emphasize that the contribution of UNRWA was a small contribution to the effort of others, such as the Palestinian groups, to test an arrangement.
"UNRWA responded positively by donating the requested food parcels -- not directly to the Palestinian factions -- but through an intermediary," and he said that they received assurances that the donations would be distributed in a "neutral manner for humanitarian purposes."
He clarified, however, that in the convoy, "UNRWA is playing only a support role. Today's effort is not an UNRWA convoy and UNRWA is not involved or engaged in the transport of the food parcels into Yarmouk or its distribution inside Yarmouk."
"Regardless of the outcome of today's effort, UNRWA's position remains that Yarmouk must be open to safe, regular humanitarian access; that the civilian residents of Yarmouk must be granted free, safe movement; and that all sides to the Syria conflict must comply with their international obligations to protect Syrian and Palestinian civilians in Yarmouk and across Syria," he added.
The announcement came after the 14 militant factions involved in the fighting, the national reconciliation committee, and Palestinian militants inside the camp had agreed to allow the introduction of aid into the camp from the Rama Road entrance on Saturday.
The agreement was the result of a long meeting that took place on Friday between the parties involved in the clashes in the camp that was chaired by Rateb Shehab, head of the delegation, with a delegation from inside the camp representing the armed groups and Palestinian committees headed by Abu Hashem Zaghmout, Abu al-Abd Arisha and Abu Saleh Fatyan.
As a result of the meeting, humanitarian aid began entering today, and preparations have begun to remove barriers from the Rama Street entrance to the camp to facilitate the movement of the sick and the young from the camp.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
Fatah leader Abbas Zaki told Ma'an in mid-October that Yarmouk's population of 250,000 had dwindled to 18,000 after two and a half years of conflict in Syria.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
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He added: "We will work hard to ensure that the Palestinians in Syria remain neutral and outside of the Syrian internal crisis because the Palestinians in Syria are guests and do not interfere in the internal affairs of the host country."
UNRWA is playing 'support role'
UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said that "Syrian authorities sought UNRWA's support as the neutral, humanitarian agency with a mandate for Palestine refugees. It is important to emphasize that the contribution of UNRWA was a small contribution to the effort of others, such as the Palestinian groups, to test an arrangement.
"UNRWA responded positively by donating the requested food parcels -- not directly to the Palestinian factions -- but through an intermediary," and he said that they received assurances that the donations would be distributed in a "neutral manner for humanitarian purposes."
He clarified, however, that in the convoy, "UNRWA is playing only a support role. Today's effort is not an UNRWA convoy and UNRWA is not involved or engaged in the transport of the food parcels into Yarmouk or its distribution inside Yarmouk."
"Regardless of the outcome of today's effort, UNRWA's position remains that Yarmouk must be open to safe, regular humanitarian access; that the civilian residents of Yarmouk must be granted free, safe movement; and that all sides to the Syria conflict must comply with their international obligations to protect Syrian and Palestinian civilians in Yarmouk and across Syria," he added.
The announcement came after the 14 militant factions involved in the fighting, the national reconciliation committee, and Palestinian militants inside the camp had agreed to allow the introduction of aid into the camp from the Rama Road entrance on Saturday.
The agreement was the result of a long meeting that took place on Friday between the parties involved in the clashes in the camp that was chaired by Rateb Shehab, head of the delegation, with a delegation from inside the camp representing the armed groups and Palestinian committees headed by Abu Hashem Zaghmout, Abu al-Abd Arisha and Abu Saleh Fatyan.
As a result of the meeting, humanitarian aid began entering today, and preparations have begun to remove barriers from the Rama Street entrance to the camp to facilitate the movement of the sick and the young from the camp.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
Fatah leader Abbas Zaki told Ma'an in mid-October that Yarmouk's population of 250,000 had dwindled to 18,000 after two and a half years of conflict in Syria.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
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Member of Hamas political bureau Ezzat Resheq stressed that his movement is making every possible effort to find a solution to end the siege imposed on the Yarmouk camp. Resheq, in a statement to PIC on Friday, strongly rejected remarks made by Ahmad Majdalani, representative of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Syria, in which he held Hamas responsible for the blockade on the Yarmouk camp.
The Hamas official reiterated that his movement has repeatedly stated that it does not have any military presence in the Syrian territory, and that like all the Palestinians it is not party to the conflict there, and added: "Hamas is working with the concerned parties to find a way to end the siege and save the lives of the residents of the camp."
The Palestinian leader described Majdalani's statements as "contrary to the reality", and said "this would further complicate the issue of the camp."
Majdalani claimed at a news conference, held on Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of the Government Information Office in Ramallah, that there are three military groups affiliated with Hamas inside the Yarmouk camp.
Meanwhile, leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, a number of officials and MPs and hundreds of Palestinian citizens in Gaza City took part in mass rallies on Friday, staged in support of the Palestinian besieged refugees in the Yarmouk camp in Syria, and in rejection of the negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation.
The marches were launched from mosques in Gaza, at the call of Hamas, and then united in one mass rally during which the marchers chanted slogans demanding the lifting of the siege on the Yarmouk camp and ending the Gaza blockade, and the rejection of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan.
For his part, Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, in a speech he delivered at the end of the rally, denounced the international silence vis-à-vis the crime committed against the Yarmouk camp.
He called on the armed groups holed up in the camp to leave it immediately, and asked the Syrian regime forces to lift the blockade and allow entry of aid to the camp.
Abu Zuhri stressed that the Palestinian people is one; whether in Gaza, Ramallah or Yarmouk, adding that Hamas is making a considerable effort to end the suffering of the residents of the camp.
The Hamas spokesman stressed the Palestinian factions’ rejection to the ongoing negotiations with the occupation in the West Bank and to Kerry's plan, and urged PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to work on achieving national unity and the reconciliation.
He also called on the Egyptian authorities to permanently open the Rafah crossing in order to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
For its part, the media campaign to save the besieged Yarmouk camp appealed to the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Red Cross, the non-aligned countries and all international humanitarian organizations to immediately intervene in order to break the siege of the Yarmouk camp, which has led to shortages of food and medical supplies and fuel.
The statement stressed that any delay in saving the residents of the Yarmouk will cause hundreds of deaths, and called on all international bodies to shoulder their responsibilities and protect the camp and its inhabitants.
The Hamas official reiterated that his movement has repeatedly stated that it does not have any military presence in the Syrian territory, and that like all the Palestinians it is not party to the conflict there, and added: "Hamas is working with the concerned parties to find a way to end the siege and save the lives of the residents of the camp."
The Palestinian leader described Majdalani's statements as "contrary to the reality", and said "this would further complicate the issue of the camp."
Majdalani claimed at a news conference, held on Thursday afternoon at the headquarters of the Government Information Office in Ramallah, that there are three military groups affiliated with Hamas inside the Yarmouk camp.
Meanwhile, leaders from Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, a number of officials and MPs and hundreds of Palestinian citizens in Gaza City took part in mass rallies on Friday, staged in support of the Palestinian besieged refugees in the Yarmouk camp in Syria, and in rejection of the negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli occupation.
The marches were launched from mosques in Gaza, at the call of Hamas, and then united in one mass rally during which the marchers chanted slogans demanding the lifting of the siege on the Yarmouk camp and ending the Gaza blockade, and the rejection of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s plan.
For his part, Hamas spokesman Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, in a speech he delivered at the end of the rally, denounced the international silence vis-à-vis the crime committed against the Yarmouk camp.
He called on the armed groups holed up in the camp to leave it immediately, and asked the Syrian regime forces to lift the blockade and allow entry of aid to the camp.
Abu Zuhri stressed that the Palestinian people is one; whether in Gaza, Ramallah or Yarmouk, adding that Hamas is making a considerable effort to end the suffering of the residents of the camp.
The Hamas spokesman stressed the Palestinian factions’ rejection to the ongoing negotiations with the occupation in the West Bank and to Kerry's plan, and urged PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to work on achieving national unity and the reconciliation.
He also called on the Egyptian authorities to permanently open the Rafah crossing in order to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip.
For its part, the media campaign to save the besieged Yarmouk camp appealed to the United Nations, the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the Red Cross, the non-aligned countries and all international humanitarian organizations to immediately intervene in order to break the siege of the Yarmouk camp, which has led to shortages of food and medical supplies and fuel.
The statement stressed that any delay in saving the residents of the Yarmouk will cause hundreds of deaths, and called on all international bodies to shoulder their responsibilities and protect the camp and its inhabitants.
Mohammad Omar Shehabi
Four Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria on Friday as a result of the ongoing shelling and siege on their refugee camps and due to starvation.
The work group for Palestinians in Syria said in a statement on Saturday that Mohammed Sehabi from Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, was killed at the hands of a sniper in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad nearby area where he was collecting vegetables.
It added that Zaher Hasan was killed in the shelling on the Yarmouk camp.
Ismail Abdullah died of health complications due to the absence of medical services in Yarmouk camp while the woman Najah Mohammed died of dehydration and malnutrition, the group said.
It said that a number of shells fell on the Diraa refugee camp causing only material damage, adding that the incident coincided with violent confrontations between the Syrian regular and free armies a the outskirts of the camp.
Four Palestinian refugees were killed in Syria on Friday as a result of the ongoing shelling and siege on their refugee camps and due to starvation.
The work group for Palestinians in Syria said in a statement on Saturday that Mohammed Sehabi from Yarmouk camp, south of Damascus, was killed at the hands of a sniper in Al-Hajar Al-Aswad nearby area where he was collecting vegetables.
It added that Zaher Hasan was killed in the shelling on the Yarmouk camp.
Ismail Abdullah died of health complications due to the absence of medical services in Yarmouk camp while the woman Najah Mohammed died of dehydration and malnutrition, the group said.
It said that a number of shells fell on the Diraa refugee camp causing only material damage, adding that the incident coincided with violent confrontations between the Syrian regular and free armies a the outskirts of the camp.
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My family has been living on cactus leaves and lentils for three months, said a witness to Al Yarmouk refugee camp
"The Syria’s Palestinian refugees in Al Yarmouk sustained incessant shelling and destruction as Iraq and many Arab nations, but what to do with hunger? No one can bear hunger!,” said a Palestinian refugee who fled the disastrous situation in Al Yarmouk refugee camp. Akram al-Beirawi, 22, lived seven years in the bereaved refugee camp, and then left his whole family alone to eventually come to Gaza. His gave his shocking testimony during a seminar titled 'Save Al Yarmouk Refugee Camp', organized by Gaza-based Al Thorayya Center for Media and Communication, and held in Red Crescent Society’s hall in Gaza City. |
The seminar gave floor to five speakers who discussed a bunch of headlines, including starvation and siege in the camp, a background about Palestinian refugees around the world, the international community reaction to the misery the camp witnesses, the role of the activist Palestinian youth.
Akram said that the Palestinians’ plight cannot be detached from the Syrians’, as they are an integral part of Syria.
“One week after Palestinians got to the streets in peaceful demonstrations in July 2012, the Syria army started the crackdown on the camp, shelling its environs and arresting its residents,” he said.
Recounting the most horrific experience he went through, Akram followed by saying that “it was in September 2012 when the army shelled a mosque 20 meters from our home, leaving some 50 dead,” an incident that was followed by the Palestinians fleeing the camp in large numbers and the siege getting to befall the insiders of the camp,”
“It was a second Nakba for us,” he cried, blaming the UNRWA and Palestinian factions who, since the camp reeled under blockade and fire, got out of the camp. “But we no longer ask for help; the people of Yarmouk cannot compromise their dignity,” he said.
“My family has been living on cactus and lentils for three months; rice is worth $100 dollars per kilo” he grieved.
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Akram said that the Palestinians’ plight cannot be detached from the Syrians’, as they are an integral part of Syria.
“One week after Palestinians got to the streets in peaceful demonstrations in July 2012, the Syria army started the crackdown on the camp, shelling its environs and arresting its residents,” he said.
Recounting the most horrific experience he went through, Akram followed by saying that “it was in September 2012 when the army shelled a mosque 20 meters from our home, leaving some 50 dead,” an incident that was followed by the Palestinians fleeing the camp in large numbers and the siege getting to befall the insiders of the camp,”
“It was a second Nakba for us,” he cried, blaming the UNRWA and Palestinian factions who, since the camp reeled under blockade and fire, got out of the camp. “But we no longer ask for help; the people of Yarmouk cannot compromise their dignity,” he said.
“My family has been living on cactus and lentils for three months; rice is worth $100 dollars per kilo” he grieved.
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Militant groups stationed in Syria's Yarmouk refugee camp on Friday reached an agreement to allow humanitarian aid to enter the camp, a Palestinian faction said.
A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command said that various militant groups agreed to facilitate the entry of much-needed food and medicine supplies to the besieged Damascus camp via Rama Street on Saturday.
The agreement will grant students and sick patients the opportunity to exit the camp, the statement said.
According to the PFLP-GC, roadblocks and earth mounds were removed early Saturday to create an entrance for the goods.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
Fatah leader Abbas Zaki told Ma'an in mid-October that Yarmouk's population of 250,000 had dwindled to 18,000 after two and a half years of conflict in Syria.
The PFLP-GC is a small Palestinian militant group allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
A statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine -- General Command said that various militant groups agreed to facilitate the entry of much-needed food and medicine supplies to the besieged Damascus camp via Rama Street on Saturday.
The agreement will grant students and sick patients the opportunity to exit the camp, the statement said.
According to the PFLP-GC, roadblocks and earth mounds were removed early Saturday to create an entrance for the goods.
Several attempts to deliver aid to Yarmouk camp have been thwarted in recent weeks due to rigorous fighting within and around the camp.
At least four Palestinians were killed in the camp on Thursday after government helicopters dropped a barrel bomb on it, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Militants say at least seven Palestinians refugees died in the attack.
At least 50 people have died due to food and medicine shortages in the camp in recent months, according to the Observatory.
After rebels seized control of Yarmouk in December 2012, the camp became embroiled in the armed fighting taking place across Syria and came under heavy regime assault.
Regime forces eventually encircled the camp and in July imposed a siege on the camp, leading to a rapid deterioration of living conditions.
Fatah leader Abbas Zaki told Ma'an in mid-October that Yarmouk's population of 250,000 had dwindled to 18,000 after two and a half years of conflict in Syria.
The PFLP-GC is a small Palestinian militant group allied with Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The Syrian conflict, which began as peaceful protests in March 2011 but developed into a civil war, has killed more than 130,000 people and prompted millions to flee their homes.
More than 760,000 Palestinians -- estimated today to number 4.8 million with their descendants -- were pushed into exile or driven out of their homes in the conflict surrounding Israel's creation in 1948.
