Damascus – The Action Group
has released a new human rights report revealing the scale of the humanitarian tragedy experienced by residents of Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus, during the war years. The report documents the deaths of 217 Palestinians as a result of the stifling siege imposed on the camp, accompanied by starvation and a shortage of medicine and medical care.
The “Painful Harvest” report, issued by the Action Group for Palestinians in Syria, explained that the victims who died between 2011 and 2024 were not killed by shelling or bullets, but rather “died drop by drop” from hunger and disease. The report described the siege as “a weapon of war deliberately used against defenseless civilians.”
The report documented 217 direct deaths due to the blockade, including children, women, and the elderly, in addition to deaths resulting from severe malnutrition and lack of medicine, as well as the exacerbation of chronic diseases due to the lack of medical care.
He pointed out that the victims represent a portion of the 1,596 people who died in Yarmouk Camp during the years of the revolution.
Blockade as a tool of war
The report indicated that the siege began gradually in July 2013 and included:
“We were eating tree leaves and animal feed.”
“My neighbor died looking for a piece of bread for his child.”
“I saw children dying from a lack of a simple medicine.”
The group at the time held the international community partly responsible for its failure to break the siege or force the warring parties to lift it, considering what happened to constitute a “war crime and a crime against humanity.”
She called for:
holding those responsible for the siege accountable, compensating victims, providing psychological and social support to survivors, and including the siege in the register of international crimes.
In addition to barrel bombs and artillery shelling, the former Syrian regime’s army adopted a “starvation” policy against several areas in Syria, with Yarmouk Camp among the most severely affected.
In 2014, Amnesty International declared that what happened in the camp amounted to “war crimes and crimes against humanity,” while the Palestinian Red Crescent described it at the time as a “disaster area” after the Palestine Hospital ceased operations.
To view the full report, click here.https://actionpal.org.uk/ar/reports/special/statistics_report.pdf