Guardian 9 weeks ago,

For more than 50 years, Yarmouk refugee camp was used as a showpiece of Syrian support for the Palestinian cause.

"Now, after three years of war and siege, jihadists of the Islamic State (Isis) stalk its ruins, the regime bombs the buildings that still stand and the few remaining residents must choose between abject misery if they stay and likely death if they flee."

"The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has maintained a low profile throughout the siege, which has repeatedly been described by the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) as an atrocity. Throughout the past two years, the UN body has only been able to secure piecemeal access to starving residents, some of whom have died from hunger and thirst.

"The violence that began in Yarmouk on 9 April is not just continuing, it has intensified," said UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness. "Yarmouk is at the lower reaches of hell. It must not be allowed to descend further.""

"A Palestinian academic from Yarmouk who visited the camp late last year said the PLO's overtures to the regime are part of an internal competition between Fatah, which dominates the PLO, and Hamas, which fell out with Assad after it declared its support for the original uprising.

"All of the Palestinian organisations have been unable to rescue the Palestinians," he said. "We need salvation. We are in the 21st century and Palestinians are dying of hunger."