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30 JANUARY 2014, YARMOUK, CAMP, DAMASCUS SYRIA
Wide shot of street among ruins, massive crowds in street. An UNRWA aid convoy succeeds
in getting inside Yarmouk camp on 30 January and is met by massive crowds of starving and
exhausted civilians. UNRWA aid worker on balcony of house ruin
with megaphone Crowds in street from above
All my children are missing
What is your name, Madame?
Lady: My name is "Prison" Are you Syrian
or Palestinian? I am Palestinian
Where in Palestine are you from?
Lady: I am from Safad. Women walking among ruins up to distribution
inhabitants at distribution point 15. Men in queue, including man in wheelchair,
to distribution point Young girl eating sandwich given at distribution
on 24 February 18.Pan along queue to UNRWA distribution.
UNRWA worker with walkie-talkie Close shot of women and children in queue
Half shot of old lady waiting on chair by ruin
Men walking by old lady to distribution point
Men on truck with supplies at distribution point
Aid workers carrying UNRWA parcels at distribution point
aid worker at distribution point Wait,
I'm coming to you! Give me one parcel,
I swear, my brothers are starving! My dear, you can't
carry it. I will bring someone to
help me. Wait, just wait
a little! Can I sit here?
Eat your sandwich! And wait a little.
distribution point. My father is dead. My mother
is injured and stuck inside the camp. I came here to get some food. We 36.don't have anything.
In the name of God, tell them to give us something. Are you coming to
get a box? Yes.
Are you alone? I can bring one of my friends
to help me What are you going
to do with the box. I have to feed the people
in my home because they haven't had anything.
walking towards distribution point, reacting to destruction.
44.Women with children and aid workers at distribution point.
45.UNRWA Commissioner-General Filippo Grandi walking towards distribution point, greeting
Commissioner-General: "There are thousands of people still inside
the camp not receiving assistance. And it is important that they are reached. And let
me speak on the part of UNRWA, the agency that is assisting the Palestinian refugees,
there used to be 160 000 of them here, we estimate that many more than 50 per cent have
left. We need to also eventually restore our services, our clinics, our schools. To do
that, all the military apparatus has to go away. Let me also add, if I may, that we are
grateful to the parties to the conflict for having agreed to let this happen. It shows
that if there is a will there is a possibility to deliver assistance."
Commissioner-General: I think there is a lot that remains to be done with people. We have
seen people today queuing up for assistance, that are hungry, that need medical treatment.
I saw some people really with signs of illness. They haven't seen a doctor or a nurse for
months on end. And I think this is urgent. To do this we need more access, we need to
go inside the camp. We need to reach the people ourselves rather than the people reaching
out to us, which is what is happening today. But these things are extremely complex. Let's
not forget that Yarmouk is not only an area of residents of Palestinian refugees. So this
adds to the complexity of this situation. The Security Council resolution is clear.
This is the beginning of its implementation here in Yarmouk. But to implement it fully,
to demilitarize, to restore services, and to conduct, without any interference, our
more needs to be done.
"I do hope and trust that this will happen every day, until this is not anymore a matter
of negotiations but we can freely deliver our assistance as these people need."
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, succeeded on
Wednesday (26 Feb) for a second time in a week to distribute food parcels to the suffering
and isolated civilians in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Damascus.
The camp, on the edge of Damascus, was once the bustling, vibrant heart of the Palestine
refugee community in Syria, where 160,000 Palestinians lived in harmony with Syrians
of all stripes. Over the past six months, it has become synonymous with infant malnutrition,
women dying in childbirth for lack of medical care and besieged communities reduced to eating
animal feed. Approximately 18,000 Palestinians and an unknown number of Syrians remain in
the camp that has been reduced to rubble.
UNRWA has earlier been given only partial humanitarian access into the camp. Convoys
in January and earlier in February distributed 7,000 food parcels, 10,000 polio vaccines
and a range of other medical supplements to civilians inside the camp. But after renewed
clashes in northern Yarmouk on 8 February, UNRWA distribution was suspended. An UNRWA
food parcel feeds a family of between five and eight for ten days.
Significantly, this Wednesday, the UNRWA team was permitted to work from an UNRWA facility
in Yarmouk for the first time since December 2012. This represents an encouraging step
towards re-establishing full services and humanitarian access to Yarmouk.
But intense humanitarian needs remain and UNRWA continues to push for an expanded humanitarian
access that must be maintained for the exhausted and suffering civilians trapped inside the
ruin landscape of Yarmouk.
Earlier this week, on Monday 24 February UNRWA's Commissioner General, Filippo Grandi entered
Yarmouk camp during the resumption of UNRWA's humanitarian aid distribution. He was shocked
by the condition of the Palestine refugees he spoke to and the extent of war damage done
to homes.
"There are thousands of people still inside the camp not receiving assistance. And it
is important that they are reached. And let me speak on the part of UNRWA, the agency
that is assisting the Palestinian refugees, there used to be 160 000 of them here, we
estimate that many more than 50 per cent have left. We need to eventually restore our services,
our clinics, our schools. In order to do that, all the military apparatus has to go away.
Let me also add, if I may, that we are grateful to the parties to the conflict for having
agreed to let this happen. It shows that if there is a will there is a possibility to
deliver assistance."
Yarmouk Camp has been sealed since July 2013, resulting in acute and widespread deprivation,
including severe malnutrition, while civilian residents are constantly exposed to the threat
of death, injuries and trauma of the armed conflict.
"I think there is a lot that remains to be done with people. We have seen people today
queuing up for assistance, that are hungry, that need medical treatment. I saw some people
really with signs of illness. They haven't seen a doctor or a nurse for months on end.
And I think this is urgent. To do this we need more access, we need to go inside the
camp. We need to reach the people ourselves rather than the people reaching out to us,
which is happening today. But these things are extremely complex. Let's not forget that
Yarmouk is not only an area of residents of Palestinian refugees. So this adds to the
complexity of this situation. The Security Council resolution is clear. This is the beginning
of its implementation here in Yarmouk. But to implement it fully, to demilitarize, to
restore services, and to conduct, without any interference, our work, more needs to
be done.