The International Committee of the Red Cross called on Thursday for immediate access to a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria where 18,000 people are caught up in fighting.
The independent aid agency said that emergency medical care was urgently needed at Yarmouk camp, adding that it has not had access to Yarmouk since October 2014.
“The ICRC is calling on all involved in fighting to allow the immediate and unimpeded passage of urgent humanitarian aid and to permit civilians who wish to leave the camp for safer areas to be able to do so at any time,” it said in a statement.
Marianne Gasser, head of the ICRC delegation in Syria, said: “People were already worn down by months of conflict and constant shortages of food, water and medicine and they need urgent help.”
President Khoja calls upon the UN and Arab countries to take urgent action to save the residents of Yarmouk from Assad’s barrel bombs and ISIS’s barbarity.
“ISIS militants broke into the camp days ago, killed and arrested several of its inhabitants who have been under siege for over 700 days,” Khoja said. “Despite the crippling siege, regime attempts to storm the camp were met by heroic resistance by our Palestinian-Syrian brothers. However, ISIS’s infiltration of the camp has caused exposure to attacks by regime forces and ISIS.”
Khoja urges rebel factions operating in southern Damascus and its rural areas to help their partners, who are defending the camp against ISIS and regime forces onslaught. He also calls on humanitarian organizations to expeditiously deliver relief aid and medical supplies to the camp and to secure safe corridors for children, women and the elderly to evacuate the ravaged camp. (Source: Syrian Coalition + Agencies)
