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No humanitarian operations possible in Yarmouk Camp in Syria: UN agency

Xinhua, April 9, 2015 Adjust font size:

After continuing siege in Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees in Syria, no humanitarian operations have been possible, a UN spokesperson said here on Wednesday.

The situation in the camp remains extremely tense with street fighting continuing, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a daily briefing, saying no humanitarian operations of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) have been possible as of Wednesday.

"UNRWA is calling for a pause in the hostilities, humanitarian access to civilians who need assistance and the safe evacuation of civilians who want to leave Yarmouk," said Dujarric.

The UN Security Council demanded humanitarian access for life- saving assistance to refugees trapped in the camp on Monday after an UNRWA official warned that situation in Yarmouk has been "more than desperate than ever."

"The situation has been turned upside down. Currently, it's simply too dangerous to access Yarmouk," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, commissioner-general of UNRWA.

The Yarmouk Camp has seen ferocious shelling and battles, as the Islamic State and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front have taken control of over 90 percent of that camp, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syria's Minister of National Reconciliation Ali Haidar said Wednesday that military operation in the camp is a "must", following the infiltration of the Islamic State (IS) group to that area.

"According to the current situation on ground, the military solution for the camp's situation is a must," said Haidar.

The Yarmouk camp is a large district in southern Damascus. Among its one million residents, 170,000 are Palestinians. Most of them fled to Syria in 1948 following the establishment of the Israeli state.

Many people inside the camp have suffered greatly during the last two years as the suffocating siege by the government troops prevented the entry of food and medicine to the trapped people, save for some aid convoys that were delivered in cooperation between the Syrian authorities and humanitarian organizations. Endite