Faruk Zorlu
23 March 2018•Update: 24 March 2018
By Bayram Altug
GENEVA
"Attacks of bombardments, all kinds of illegal weapons being used", a UN official said Friday referring to reports of intense airstrikes targeting Syria’s besieged Eastern Ghouta.
"We unfortunately have a steady stream of reports coming out of Eastern Ghouta: of attacks of bombardments, all kinds of illegal weapons being used." said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), during a news conference in Geneva.
Laerke said: "we help those tens of thousands of people who are fleeing and coming out, and as I mentioned the other day, they come out in a really terrible state of mind, and physical condition, it’s horrible."
"They are traumatized, they are tired, they are hungry, they are thirsty, they are sick, they have been deprived of medical care for month and even years." he said.
In statements made on its social media accounts, the civil defense group White Helmets said fighter jets had been used to hit the shelter inhabited by civilians with inflammable "napalm" bombs.
Since Feb. 19, nearly 1,000 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta.
On Feb. 24, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 2401, which called for a cease-fire in Syria -- especially in Eastern Ghouta -- to allow the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Despite the cease-fire resolution, however, the regime and its allies early this month launched a major ground offensive -- backed by Russian air power -- aimed at capturing opposition-held parts of the district.
Home to some 400,000 civilian residents, Eastern Ghouta has remained under a crippling regime siege for the last five years that has prevented the delivery of badly-needed humanitarian supplies.
In 1980, the UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons banned the usage of flammable Napalm bombs against civilians.
