“Don’t forget us here”: Photos reveal devastation in Syria’s Yarmouk camp

By Ali Abunimah

"Since July, Yarmouk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus has been closed to humanitarian relief.

Thousands of people – Palestinians and Syrians – trapped inside have been suffering from malnutrition and a grievous lack of medical care. Dozens are reported to have died of starvation.

British-Lebanese journalist Hala Jaber reported for today’s Sunday Times and The Australian, from Yarmouk, whose “150,000 inhabitants have dwindled to an estimated 18,000 after a year of ferocious fighting between Palestinian factions on opposing sides of Syria’s civil war. A seven-month army siege has compounded the misery.”

(To read Jaber’s report, which is behind a paywall, search for the headline “Driven to desperate measures, Syrians are only just surviving,” using Google and click on the result from The Australian).

Last week, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, attempted to deliver aid into the camp but found that procedures implemented by the Syrian army slowed their efforts to a trickle.

These images tweeted by Jaber, shot by photographer Ghassan Najjar on 20 January, provide an all too rare glimpse of the people living in the camp amid horrifying circumstances. "