Humanitarian aid delivered to 18,000 Palestinian refugees on the outskirts of Damascus (picture) [View all]

[pampango]

Yarmouk residents gather to await food distribution from UNRWA in January 2014.

Amid “unbelievable devastation,” the United Nations agency charged with ensuring the well-being of Palestinian refugees across the Middle East has today been able to deliver life-saving supplies to families in a camp on the outskirts of Damascus, where nearly every building is an empty shell and the war-weary, desperate people have suffered unparalleled deprivation.

As massive crowds lined up with “row upon row of gaunt faces,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) distributed 450 food parcels in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk today, bringing to 7,493 the total number of food parcels distributed since 18 January. An UNRWA food parcel feeds a family of between five and eight for 10 days. There 18,000 Palestinians in the camp and an unknown number of Syrians.

“Significantly, the UNRWA team was permitted to work from an UNRWA facility in Yarmouk for the first time since December 2012,” said spokesperson Christopher Gunness, who added: “This represents a highly encouraging step towards re-establishing full services and humanitarian access to Yarmouk. Despite the presence of large crowds, the distribution was orderly with no security incidents or pauses,” said Mr. Gunness, who also emphasized that UNRWA staff were permitted to manage the distribution process in its entirety, without the involvement of third parties.

The UNRWA team received authorisation from the Syrian government to resume food distribution inside Yarmouk at 2 p.m. local time and proceeded from the northern Bateekhah entrance to UNRWA’s Tabgha School. UNRWA vehicles carried 450 parcels to the school, where aid was distributed for about four hours.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=47236&Cr=syria&Cr1=palestin#.Uw8fCF6ge2w

Hope the UN is able to continue to deliver humanitarian aid in this neighborhood and elsewhere.