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Add to Preferred SourcesThe United Nations says it is alarmed by “the extreme escalation in hostilities” in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta and called for “immediate” end to the bombardment of the rebel-held area that has left more than 100 people dead since Sunday.
“The recent escalation of violence compounds an already precarious humanitarian situation,” Panos Moumtzis, the UN’s regional humanitarian coordinator for the Syria crisis, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“It’s imperative to end this senseless human suffering now. Such targeting of innocent civilians and infrastructure must stop now.”
At least 20 children are among those killed in the incessant air raids and artillery fired by Syrian government forces on the Damascus suburb home to some 400,000 people, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
Over 300 people have suffered wounds, the London-based monitoring group said on Tuesday.
“Warplanes have not stopped soaring over the city. When the shelling temporarily stops, they start firing missiles at us,” Shams, a mother of two children, told Al Jazeera from Eastern Ghouta.
The attack that began on Sunday reportedly marks an upcoming ground assault, which will soon be launched by the government, the SOHR said. Khalid Abulabed, a field doctor in the besieged Damascus suburb, described the current situation as “crazy and catastrophic”.
Eastern Ghouta is last remaining rebel-held area east of Damascus, and has been under siege by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad‘s forces since 2013. The UN and other rights organisations have continuously called for a permanent ceasefire and for the government to lift the “crippling” blockade.
As a result of the tight siege, aid convoys have not been able to deliver much of the desperately needed food and medical supplies, and overall access to the enclave remains “woefully inadequate”.
Original source: AlJazeera
Published on 20 February 2018