Syria: UN Agency Delivers Supplies to Besieged Camp amid ‘Unbelievable Devastation’
New York, Feb 26 2014 - Amid “unbelievable devastation,” the United Nations agency charged with ensuring the well-being
of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East has today been able to deliver life-saving supplies to families in a camp
on the outskirts of Damascus, where nearly every building is an empty shell and the war-weary, desperate people have
suffered unparalleled deprivation.
As massive crowds lined up with “row upon row of gaunt faces,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in
the Near East (UNRWA) distributed 450 food parcels in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk today, bringing to 7,493
the total number of food parcels distributed since 18 January.
“Significantly, the UNRWA team was permitted to work from an UNRWA facility in Yarmouk for the first time since December
2012,” said spokesperson Christopher Gunness, who added: “This represents a highly encouraging step towards
re-establishing full services and humanitarian access to Yarmouk.”
The UNRWA team received authorisation to resume food distribution inside Yarmouk at 2 p.m. local time and proceeded from
the northern Bateekhah entrance to UNRWA’s Tabgha School. UNRWA vehicles carried 450 parcels to the school, where aid
was distributed for about four hours.
“Despite the presence of large crowds, the distribution was orderly with no security incidents or pauses,” said Mr.
Gunness, who also emphasized that UNRWA staff were permitted to manage the distribution process in its entirety, without
the involvement of third parties.
He said that while intense humanitarian needs remain, UNRWA welcomes this encouraging development and is assured that
expanded humanitarian access will be maintained over the coming days. “The Agency stands ready to rapidly re-establish
services and increase humanitarian assistance,” Mr. Gunness added.
After fighting broke out late at night on 7 February, forcing UNRWA to temporarily suspend its aid deliveries, the
Agency has had only intermittent access to the camp in the past two weeks. An UNRWA food parcel feeds a family of
between five and eight for 10 days. There 18,000 Palestinians in the camp and an unknown number of Syrians.
When partial humanitarian access was granted on 18 January and 20 February, UNRWA had successfully distributed 7,000
food parcels, 10,000 polio vaccines and a range of other medical supplements to civilians inside the camp. Prior to the
armed conflict in Syria, which began in March 2011, Yarmouk – a suburb just south of Damascus – was home to over 160,000
Palestine refugees.
During his visit to the camp two days ago, UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi painted a grim picture of the situation there,
telling reporters later that “the devastation is unbelievable. There is not one single building that I have seen that is
not an empty shell by now.”
What was even more shocking was the state of the people inside. With much of the camp destroyed and passageways blocked
with barricades, “the people coming from within Yarmouk appear suddenly near [our] distribution point. It’s like the
appearance of ghosts. These are people that have not been out, that have been trapped in there not only without food,
medicines, clean water – all the basics – but also probably completely subjected to fear,” he said.
Since December 2012, fighting has caused at least 140,000 Palestine refugees to flee their homes in Yarmouk, as armed
opposition groups established a presence in the area, with Government forces controlling the periphery.
Starvation and illnesses exacerbated by hunger or lack of medical aid have contributed to some 100 people dying in the
camp in recent months, according to UN figures.
For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news
ENDS