Hamas urges militants to leave Yarmouk refugee camp to 'save lives'

GAZA CITY

Palestinian resistance group Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, called on militants to leave the Yarmouk refugee camp in eastern Damascus on Wednesday.

"We call on all militants in the camp to leave to allow for the rescue of thousands of civilians inside," Hamas declared in a statement posted on its website.

The camp has been under siege by the Syrian army for more than 170 days, which has brought it close to total ruin.

Thousands of Palestinian refugees inside the camp continued to suffer from an extreme lack of essential items, including food and medicine.

International humanitarian organizations have been unable to deliver aid to camp residents since last September.

Hamas has called for lifting the siege on the camp and opening the doors to urgently-needed humanitarian assistance.

The group said the suffering of the besieged refugees was beyond the ability of anybody to tolerate, warning of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

It lamented that more than 50 people had starved to death in the camp.

"We stress the need to keep Palestinian refugees out of the conflict in Syria," Hamas said.

It called on international organizations to shoulder their responsibilities vis-à-vis the refugees inside the camp and help save their lives.

Martin Nesirky, UN Secretary General spokesperson, said Wednesday that they are concerned about the starvation reports from Yarmoukand several other refugee camps in Syria.  

He told Anadolu Agency that the routes to the refugee camps in Syria are closed by both the regime forces and other factions fighting in Syria. 

"UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos observed that for months humanitarian aid had not reached the Yarmouk camp along with several other refugee camps in Syria where more than 9 million people have been living," said Narisky.  

Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Marie Harf, US Deparment of State spokesperson, called the situation horrific in the Syrian refugee camps because of the regime's brutality.

Harf stated that the US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Russian FM Sergei Lavrov to use Russia's influence with the Syrian regime to try and get humanitarian access to some of these areas.

"This is clearly a top concern for us, but it’s very difficult when we can’t get access in the middle of an ongoing civil war. That’s why we’ve asked Russia – and I think there’s been some willingness there – to push the Assad regime to allow access, because ultimately they’re the ones that control it," he said.

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