The Yarmouk, Syria, refugee camp (CC/ UNRWA/ W. Masoud)
DAMASCUS, Syria, April 6 (UPI) -- About 18,000 refugees remain trapped in a Damascus, Syria, camp overtaken by Islamic State forces.
The Yarmouk camp was overrun by IS and allied Al-Nusra Front militants, a group aligned with al-Qaida, and the lives of those living within are "profoundly threatened," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Sunday. The camp is filled largely with refugees from two years of Syrian civil war and themselves descendants of Palestinians who were driven from their homes when Israel was founded in 1948.
The attack is the deepest IS inroad into the capital city of Damascus and an indication its ground war has stalled, leaving Syria's most vulnerable population as its only logical target.
The camp was bombarded by IS forces Sunday, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
"All people are trying to leave the camp," said Syrian activist Abu Mohammed, a former Yarmouk resident. "There is no electricity. ISIS (IS) controls the hospital so injured people have nowhere to go." About 2,000 escaped last week.
Saeb Erekat, of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said, "Reports of kidnappings, beheadings and mass killings are coming out from Al- Yarmouk, which is under a brutal campaign of murder and occupation."
A UNRWA statement said, "Never has the hour been more desperate in the Palestine refugee camp of Yarmouk, in Damascus. We demand that all parties exercise maximum restraint and abide by their obligations under international law to protect civilians. The lives of civilians in Yarmouk have never been more profoundly threatened. Men, women and children -- Syrians and Palestinians alike -- are cowering in their battered homes in profound fear, desperate for security, food and water, deeply concerned by the grave perils that may yet come, as hostilities continue."
About 3,500 children live in the camp.
The IS attack is the latest act in the refugee camp's sordid history. As many as 160,000 people have lived there since the Syrian civil war began, and at least 200 Palestinians have starved to death.
"For over 700 days, the camp has been the victim of a draconian siege, which has resulted in the death by starvation of at least 200 Palestinians," Erekat said. "Yarmouk shall remain a testament to the collective human failure of protecting civilians in times of war."
