UNRWA chief speaks of 'shocking' scenes in besieged Syria camp

[Jefferson23]

BEIRUT (AFP) -- The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees spoke Tuesday of the "shocking" conditions he had seen inside a Syrian camp which has been under siege and bombardment for months.

UNRWA chief Filippo Grandi called for sustained access for aid deliveries to some 18,000 Palestinians who have been trapped under fire in the Yarmouk camp, in south Damascus, with dwindling food supplies.

"It's like the appearance of ghosts," he said of the sight of hundreds of Palestinians flooding toward an aid distribution point at the camp, when he was in the Syrian capital on Monday.

"These are people that have not been out of there," he told reporters in Beirut.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=676744

[dipsydoodle]

1. Tragic.

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[Jefferson23]

2. It is a nightmare. Some relief is coming but it is not coming soon enough:

Turkey offers residency to Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=674836

Syria crisis: A Palestinian plea from Yarmouk refugee camp



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-26333533

[Jefferson23]

3. Thousands of Palestinians trapped in Syria camp 'slowly dying'

BEIRUT (AFP) -- Gaunt, ragged figures fill the streets for as far as the eye can see in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk outside Damascus, where some 40,000 are said to be slowly starving to death.

The United Nations distributed shocking images this week of thousands of people, their faces emaciated, desperately flocking to receive food aid that only a few were lucky enough to collect.

"We live in a big prison," said Rami al-Sayed, a Syrian activist living in Yarmouk, speaking via the Internet.

"But at least, in a prison, you have food. Here, there's nothing. We are slowly dying."

"Sometimes, crowds of children stop me on the streets, begging me: 'For the love of God, we want to eat, give us food.' But of course, I have no food to give them," Sayed said.

After months of shelling and fierce fighting in and around Yarmouk between rebels and President Bashar Assad's troops, the camp's population has shrunk from more than 150,000 to 40,000. Among them are 18,000 Palestinians.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=677438