GENEVA: The rebel-controlled east of Syria’s Aleppo has officially been declared a “besieged area,” following a months-long government offensive and a lack of access for aid workers, the UN said Wednesday.
Half of the estimated 275,000 Syrians besieged in eastern Aleppo want to leave, the UN said as food supplies are running thin and people are driven to burning plastic for fuel.
Food prices are rising and supplies are running out. Mothers were reportedly tying ropes around their stomachs or drinking large amounts of water to reduce the feeling of hunger and prioritize food for their children, the UN said.
“An assessment conducted in eastern Aleppo city concluded that 50 percent of the inhabitants expressed willingness to leave if they can,” the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in an update on the Aleppo situation.
United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) spokesman Jens Laerke said eastern Aleppo now met all three criteria used to define an area as besieged. That includes military encirclement, lack of humanitarian access and the lack of free movement for civilians.
The UN estimates that there are 275,000 people in eastern Aleppo under siege, Laerke said. The west of the city is controlled by the government and has continued to receive relief supplies.
Once Syria’s economic powerhouse, Aleppo has been devastated by the country’s brutal five-year civil war, with the suffering intensifying since regime troops cut off the last supply route in July.
UN declares east Aleppo ‘besieged’
UN declares east Aleppo ‘besieged’
Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch visits Gaza for Christmas
- The senior churchman “arrived in Gaza today for a pastoral visit to the Holy Family Parish, on the eve of the Christmas celebrations,” his office said
- During his visit, Pizzaballa will review developments in humanitarian response on the ground in Gaza
JERUSALEM: Jerusalem’s Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, arrived in Gaza Friday for Christmas Mass at the Holy Family Parish in Gaza City, which hosts the Palestinian territory’s only Roman Catholic church.
The senior churchman “arrived in Gaza today for a pastoral visit to the Holy Family Parish, on the eve of the Christmas celebrations,” his office said in a statement.
It said the visit “reaffirms the enduring bond of the Holy Family Parish in Gaza with the wider Diocese of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.”
During his visit, Pizzaballa will review developments in humanitarian response on the ground in the Gaza Strip as well as rehabilitation efforts.
He will also lead an anticipated Christmas Mass at the Holy Family Parish on Sunday, the statement said.
During his last visit to Gaza in July, Pizzaballa brought in 500 tons of food for residents suffering from shortages caused by Israeli restrictions on goods entering the devastated territory.
Pizzaballa and his Greek Orthodox counterpart, Theophilos III, were visiting after Israeli fire hit the Holy Family Church, killing three people.
A famine declared in Gaza in August is now over thanks to improved access for humanitarian aid, the United Nations said on Friday, also warning that the food situation there remained “critical.”
About 1,000 of 2.2 million Gaza inhabitants are Christians, most of them Orthodox.
The Latin Patriarchate says 135 Catholics live in Gaza. They sought shelter inside the compound of the Holy Family Church in the first days of the war between Israel and Hamas.
Some members of the Greek Orthodox church joined them in the compound owned by the Roman Catholic church.
