(ANS - Damascus) - As always in war, the weakest pay the highest price. There is proof, if proof were needed, in the tragic events that are taking place at the present time in the refugee camp of Yarmouk, on the outskirts of Damascus. Some 18,000 Palestinian refugees, including 3,500 children, are trapped there between the fire of the Syrian army and the advance of the rebels.

"Beyond the inhuman", is how Chris Gunness, spokesman of the United Nations for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), described the situation of the people in the refugee camp of Yarmouk, on the outskirts of Damascus. "There is no food, no water and very little medicine ... People are locked up in their houses, and fighting rages in the streets. This must be stopped and civilians must be evacuated."

Pierre Krahenbuhl, UNRWA Commissioner-General, in a statement to the Security Council, said that the refugees in the camp survive on food rations of 400 calories a day, less than a quarter of what it is necessary according to the World Health Organization. The last delivery of food took place 10 days ago, on 29 March.

By now the fighting has reached the interior of Yarmouk, with the rebels committing atrocities against civilians, according to various sources. The UN Security Council has called for the creation of a humanitarian corridor to ensure "the protection of civilians and humanitarian assistance, and to save lives."

Several Italian NGOs, including the Volunteers for International Development (VIS), have called on the Italian Government to take urgent action to support the efforts of UNRWA. The Foreign Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, has held a trilateral meeting with the ministers of Egypt and Algeria and has established an allocation of 1.5 million euro for Palestinian children caught in the field.

Speaking at the Council for Human Rights in Geneva, on 17 March, Archbishop Silvano Tommasi, Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, referred to the plight of children in refugee camps. "Apart from the immense tragedies that affect them now" they see their future at risk because of the absence or the loss of the documents that give them minimum rights, the lack of education and separation from their families. "If the violence does not stop and the normal rhythm of education and development does not resume, these children risk becoming a lost generation."

Pope Francis said in yesterday’s General Audience: "Every marginalized, abandoned child who lives on the street begging and with all sorts of devices, without school, without medical care, is a cry that goes up to God and that accuses the system that we adults have built."

Published 9/04/2015