facility:yarmouk palestinian refugee camp

Palestinian refugees in Yarmouk find themselves at Ground Zero of jihadist battle - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz
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Once an oasis of calm, the camp in south Damascus is now under siege, torn between militants from Islamic State, armed opposition groups and forces that are loyal to the Assad regime.
By Jack Khoury

The battles for control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, which has been in the headlines over the past week after most of it was seized by Islamic State (also known as ISIS or ISIL), disclose the power struggles between the militias that ostensibly constitute the armed opposition to the regime of President Bashar Assad as well as Palestinian groups in the refugee camps in Syria and in Lebanon.

It is clear that the Palestinian refugees in the camp are paying the heaviest price for the unrest. The overwhelming majority of the camp’s inhabitants have been repeatedly forced to relocate to different camps, which has placed their dreams of returning to Palestine even further from their reach.

Yarmouk was once Syria’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, with a population of 180,000. In contrast to the refugee camps that were established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, in Lebanon and in Jordan, after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 or the 1967 Six-Day War, the Yarmouk camp was established in 1957. The Syrian government gathered all of the Palestinian refugees who were living in the Golan Heights, in the area surrounding Damascus and a few other locations in Syria into an area of 2.11 square kilometers, eight kilometers south of the southernmost reaches of Damascus.

#Assad calls for increase aid access without “compromising sovereignty”
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/assad-calls-increase-aid-access-without-compromising-syrian-sover

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A handout picture released by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) on April 24, 2014 and taken the same day shows residents of #syria's besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, gathering to receive food aid from UNRWA. (Photo: AFP / UNRWA)

Syria’s President #Bashar_al-Assad has said government agencies should increase cooperation on aid work but it must be done without “compromising national sovereignty,” state media reported. #UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said last month none of the warring parties in Syria was meeting UN demands for aid access and demanded the Security Council take action on violations of international law. read (...)

#Top_News

#UN: Renewed fighting halts #Yarmouk aid deliveries
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/un-renewed-fighting-halts-yarmouk-aid-deliveries

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A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on February 24, 2014 shows residents of #syria's besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, being evacuated during an operation led by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. (Photo: AFP / SANA) A handout picture released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on February 24, 2014 shows residents of Syria’s besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of Damascus, being evacuated during an operation led by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA. (Photo: AFP / SANA)

Fighting in the Damascus district of Yarmouk have interrupted aid distribution to thousands of besieged Palestinian refugees, the United Nations (...)

#al-Nusra #PFLP-GC #Top_News

The Deal in Yarmouk: End of the Tragedy or Empty Words?
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A man holds the corpse of a one-year old baby Adbul Jalil Mohamed Hamis wrapped in shrouds, who reportedly died of hunger in the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern #Damascus during a funeral ceremony on January 27, 2014. (Photo: AFP- Lens of a young Dimashqi) A man holds the corpse of a one-year old baby Adbul Jalil Mohamed Hamis wrapped in shrouds, who reportedly died of hunger in the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus during a funeral ceremony on January 27, 2014. (Photo: AFP- Lens of a young Dimashqi)

The sheer devastation is enough for one to imagine what kind of battles have been taking place in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. There are no signs of life at the (...)

#Mideast_&_North_Africa #Al-Nusra_Front #Articles #Hamas #Ibn_Taymiyaa #Palestine #Palestine_Camp #PFLP-GC #syria #Yarmouk_Camp

Second #UN food convoy enters #Yarmouk
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The United Nations distributed food in the Syrian capital’s besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp for a second day Friday in a bid to help tens of thousands of trapped civilians. The aid distribution comes after months of siege by the army that has caused shortages of food and medicines, which have led to dozens of deaths. UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness said an aid convoy entered the camp in south Damascus on Friday morning. read more

#Palestinian_Camp #syria #Top_News

UN delivers food to besieged #Yarmouk camp
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A food convoy gained entry Thursday to #syria's besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, where dozens have died from shortages of food and medicines, the UN and Syrian state media said. UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) spokesman Chris Gunness said 1,028 food rations had been delivered to the camp south of Damascus, in a “modest” launch of the rescue operation. Each ration is enough to keep a family of eight going for 10 days, he told AFP. read more

#Siege #Top_News #UNRWA

#Yarmouk surviving off stray animals: resident
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Syrian Red Crescent workers assist a man to be evacuated from the besieged Yarmouk #Palestinian_Refugee_Camp, south of the Syrian capital Damascus on January 19, 2014. (Photo: AFP / STR) Syrian Red Crescent workers assist a man to be evacuated from the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp, south of the Syrian capital Damascus on January 19, 2014. (Photo: AFP / STR)

Besieged since June, nearly 20,000 people in Damascus’ Yarmouk Palestinian camp are so desperate for food that many eat stray animals, according to a resident reached via the Internet. “Many here have slaughtered and eaten cats and dogs, and even a donkey,” said Yarmouk resident Ali, who was a university student when #syria's revolt erupted in 2011. "One (...)

#blockade #Siege #Top_News

#Yarmouk Camp – Resistance Camp Needs to Reflect
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Palestinian women, who had been living at Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in #syria, wait outside the Lebanese immigration authority to have their papers stamped at the Lebanese-Syrian border, in al-Masnaa December 18, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS - Jamal Saidi). Palestinian women, who had been living at Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, wait outside the Lebanese immigration authority to have their papers stamped at the Lebanese-Syrian border, in al-Masnaa December 18, 2012. (Photo: REUTERS - Jamal Saidi).

There are very few Arab intellectuals who have displayed the same unwavering commitment to the Resistance and the Palestinian cause as Al-Akhbar’s editor- in- chief, Ibrahim al-Amin. It is precisely because of this (...)

#Opinion #Articles #Damascus #Palestine #Syrian_army

Blocking aid to #Yarmouk camp may be war crime: #UN rights chief
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/18279

Syria’s repeated obstruction of aid convoys to the besieged Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in southern Damascus might be considered a war crime, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said Friday. “Impeding humanitarian assistance to civilians in desperate need may amount to a war crime,” Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said in a statement. Rebels control swathes of Yarmouk, but for months Syrian government forces have imposed a suffocating siege on the camp, where some 20,000 Palestinians live despite terrible shortages. read more

#Syrian_conflict #Top_News

#Yarmouk Camp – A Responsibility to Protect
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Palestinian children who were living in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp before fleeing #syria, hold banners during a protest in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Beirut January 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters - Sharif Karim) Palestinian children who were living in Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp before fleeing Syria, hold banners during a protest in front of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Beirut January 17, 2013. (Photo: Reuters - Sharif Karim)

What is happening, and has been happening for months now, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in #Damascus is criminal. A siege upon any segment of a civilian population is outrageous, but on a civilian refugee population – one (...)

#Opinion #Articles #Lebanon #Nahr_al-Bared #Palestine