The local council in the town of Khan Alsheeh in rural Damascus called upon the international community to put pressure on Russia and the Assad regime in order to stop the bombing of the town and the Khan Alsheeh Palestinian refugee camp in western Ghouta.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the council said the Palestinian refugee camp and the town have been subjected to relentless aerial bombardment by the Assad regime and Russian forces. The statement added that over 50 airstrikes targeted the camp in the past five days, killing eight Palestinian refugees, including a woman and a child. Cluster munitions were used in some of the attacks.
The Council called upon the Palestinian authorities and all those concerned to put pressure on Russia and the Assad regime to stop aerial attacks on the camp.
The statement stressed that there is no military presence in the camp which has been subjected to siege by regime forces for nearly three years. Residents of the camp have been living in difficult humanitarian conditions as a result of shortages of food and medical supplies.
Khan Alsheeh refugee camp is home to around 12,000 Palestinian refugees as well as 4,000 internally displaced people from the surrounding areas which have been reduced to rubble as a result of bombing by regime forces.
Member of the opposition’s High Negotiations Committee (HNC) Basma Qadamani called on the European Union to impose sanctions on Russian companies involved in the delivery of arms shipments to the Assad’s regime which uses such weapons to indiscriminately bomb liberated areas across Syria.
Following a meeting with the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and EU officials in Brussels on Monday, Qadamani said: “Any possible lifting of EU sanctions on Russia will be understood by the Kremlin and Bashar al-Assad as a gesture allowing them to return to the international arena.” (Source: Syrian Coalition + Smart News)
