UNRWA Aid to Yarmouk Repeatedly Thwarted

By Jonathan Rozen Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 5 2014 (IPS) - Despite the absence of access in recent days, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) continues to press for a security agreement in Yarmouk, which would support more comprehensive aid distribution to the starving population.

In the last 21 days, UNRWA has been permitted access only on four occasions to the largely Palestinian Yarmouk camp outside Damascus. Three of these occasions came between February 26 and 28, 2014, following a 16-day period during which aid was only permitted on February 20th.

On both February 27 and 28, UNRWA’s distribution process was cut short by security concerns, limiting the number of aid packages the organisation was able to supply.

The ability for UNWRA to deliver assistance to the people of Yarmouk still appears to be on a “convoy to convoy, day to day basis” Chris Gunness, UNRWA spokesperson, told IPS last month.
“Concerned parties informed the UNRWA team that humanitarian access would be permitted to resume in the coming days, pending implementation of the recent security agreement in Yarmouk,” Gunness explained. But, it appears that five days later, while clashes did not occur on March 4, this agreement has not been reached.

“UNRWA remains deeply concerned about the desperate humanitarian situation in Yarmouk and the fact that increasing tensions and resort to armed force have disrupted its efforts to alleviate the desperate plight of civilians.”

Last week, Gunness described the scene of distribution within Yarmouk as “apocalyptic,” where “huge crowds gather…in a ‘no man’s land’ defined by opposing sniper positions.”

To date, UNRWA has distributed 7,708 food parcels to a population of at least 18,000 Palestinians and an unknown number of Syrians.

“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,” said Filippo Grandi, UNRWA Commissioner-General, during his visit to Yarmouk” end February.

On February 22, 2014, the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted Security Council Resolution 2139, which states that all parties must “take all appropriate steps to facilitate the efforts of the United Nations, its specialised agencies, and all humanitarian actors engaged in humanitarian relief activities.”

This was meant to provide immediate humanitarian assistance to the affected people in Syria, including by promptly facilitating safe and unhindered humanitarian access to populations in need of assistance in all areas under their control.

The resolution also reaffirmed that “depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including wilfully impeding relief supply and access, can constitute a violation of international humanitarian law.”

Responsibility for the restricted access to the Yarmouk population has been almost exclusively directed toward the Syrian government, whose forces control the periphery of the Opposition controlled area.