UN warns situation in Damascus refugee camp is 'beyond inhumane'

[Surya Gayatri]

Source: The Guardian

Islamic State (Isis) extremists were trying to consolidate their hold on Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus on Monday after three days of clashes that have seen the terror group make its deepest foray yet into the Syrian capital.


Demonstrators outside the Red Cross building in Jerusalem show support for the Palestinians living in Syria’s Yarmouk refugee camp on Monday.

As fighting raged, the United Nations warned that an already untenable humanitarian situation was now “beyond inhumane” and that no aid had reached already starving residents since the clashes began on Friday.

The arrival of an estimated 300 Isis members has alarmed Syrian rebels, who are fighting Isis from inside Yarmouk and regime forces bombing it from outside the camp perimeter.

Until Friday, Isis had no known organised presence in the outer suburbs of Damascus. Its sudden appearance threatens the creation of a foothold for Islamic State, whose supporters have framed the surprise offensive as a liberation of the camp’s starving residents.

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/06/un-warns-situation-damascus-palestinian-refugee-camp-beyond-inhumane

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'Never has the hour been more desperate in the Palestine refugee camp of Yarmouk.'
United Nations relief and works agency

[azurnoir]

1. More about the situation in Yarmouk

People don’t understand just how bad the situation is in the Palestinian refugee camp in Syria. Tens of thousands of Palestinians, famished and under attack, are sitting prey for a group of fighters/rebels/terrorists/Assad supporters. We, the Palestinians, and the entire world, don’t really know who’s against who or what they are guilty of. There have been more and more reports of bodies, horrifying murders and wounded in recent days.

When the war in Syria began three years ago, we, the Palestinians here in Israel, were angry at them, with utmost self-righteousness, that they didn’t join the revolution against Assad. Later we understood their immense fear of getting mixed up in it. The reports we’ve gotten in the past three years about what the Assad government has done to Palestinian youngsters in the refugee camp are simply horrible. Later we got mad at al-Nusra Front, which entered the camp as an opposition force to the regime and were angry that the organization was terrifyingly executing people on the streets. Its fighters raped young women and committed other crimes against humanity that are documented and available for anyone to see on the Internet.

And now, news that ISIS united with al-Nusra Front against the poor Palestinians in the Yarmouk Refugee Camp, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — aside from al-Nusra’s fear that it was losing control of the camp, and joined ISIS to defeat a group of Palestinian youngsters who organized themselves in an attempt to defend the camp. They call themselves “Aknef Beit al-Maqdis” (The Environs of Jerusalem, in Arabic).

Refugees who fled for their lives to every corner of the world from Yarmouk have described the terror and the smell of death that permeates the camp. “People are eating each other out of starvation,” somebody wrote. There has been no running water since September, and the world is silent.

http://972mag.com/if-only-there-was-oil-under-yarmouk/105344/

[Surya Gayatri]

2. Oh, azurnoir, I wish you'd bring this to wider attention.

Last edited Tue Apr 7, 2015, 05:06 AM - Edit history (1)

As I was waking up this morning, I was listening to France 24 where this story's at the top of the news hour.

Thought of posting another OP in GD, as nobody seems to know or care.

[Violet_Crumble]

4. Yeah, it's big news here in Australia as well...

It's a horrific situation. I read this morning that the population of the camp is 10% of what it was a year ago and that most have fled, and I was wondering who's been left there and why they stayed. I assumed that it'd be the elderly and the ill, but someone in another thread mentioned that after decades of fleeing from Israel and Jordan, some may have stayed because they're sick of running

[Surya Gayatri]

6. See here, Violet...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10141060576

from France!

[Bosonic]

3. UN demands aid access to Syria's Yarmuk after IS attack

UN demands aid access to Syria's Yarmuk after IS attack

Damascus (AFP) - The UN Security Council has demanded humanitarian access to Syria's Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp as residents described fleeing in terror after the arrival of jihadists of the Islamic State group.

The advance by the extremists into the battered neighbourhood of south Damascus has alarmed the international community and Palestinian officials, with a delegation from the West Bank heading to Syria to discuss the situation.

The Security Council expressed deep concern about the situation on Monday, said Jordan's ambassador Dina Kawar, who chairs the council this month.

It called "for the protection of civilians in the camp for ensuring a humanitarian access to the area including by providing life-saving assistance," Kawar said

http://news.yahoo.com/un-demands-aid-access-syrias-yarmuk-attack-101043978.html

[Surya Gayatri]

5. Thanks for this extra info, Bos.