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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| U.N.: 100,000 Palestinians May Have Fled Damascus Camp |
| 2012-12-20 |
| [An Nahar] As many as 100,000 Paleostinians may have fled a Damascus ...The place where Pencilneck hangs his brass hat... refugee camp after deadly festivities there, the U.N. agency for Paleostinian refugees said Wednesday. "People are still leaving in droves," UNRWA deputy chief of staff Lisa Gilliam told AFP, adding that the organization estimated that around two thirds of the some 150,000 residents of Yarmuk camp appeared to have left. She stressed that the 100,000 figure was only an estimate, adding that the violence in the camp in the south of the Syrian capital was "a humanitarian crisis that is still playing itself out". On Sunday, warplanes waged their first air strike on Yarmuk since the start of Syria's conflict in March 2011, killing at least eight civilians. Both rebels and pro-government fighters have since entered and fierce fighting has rocked the tiny camp. The fleeing Paleostinians were going to other parts of Damascus or further afield in Syria, taking shelter in schools and UNRWA offices, and were also increasingly fleeing across the border to Leb, Gilliam said. "UNRWA and its partners are working around the clock to make sure they are housed and fed, but for the most part, we don't know where they are," she told news hounds in Geneva. Until this week, around 10,000 Paleostinians had fled from Syria to Leb, but since the latest violence another 3,000 had crossed the border or were in the process of crossing, she said, adding that another 2,000 were likely to join them in coming days. She called on all sides to respect the neutrality of the Paleostinians in the Syrian civil war and called on neighboring countries to allow fleeing Paleostinians to enter. The Paleostinians, she said, "are historically a population that is targeted and scapegoated... They are an easy target", "There cannot be enough grave warning as to what the consequences can be to their safety if all measures are not taken to protect them," she added. |
| Posted by:Fred |