The long line for food in Yarmouk camp, Syria

 

A photo provided by the group Palestinians of Syria, shows a child sitting on a broken sidewalk after hearing that Syrian authorities would allow civilians to leave in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Yarmouk in Damascus, Syria.

 

IF YOU got irritated as you waited three minutes for your morning coffee, it is time to take a reality check. 

This photo shows a disturbing scene at the war-ravaged Yarmouk camp in Syria where men, women and children wait for food. The line stretches as far as the eye can see.

 

This picture taken on Jan. 31, 2014, shows residents of the besieged Palestinian camp of Yarmouk, queuing to receive food supplies, in Damascus, Syria. 

The Yarmouk refugee camp, located in Damascus, has suffered crippling shortages of food and medicine since it became embroiled in the Syrian civil war in December 2012. The fighting is between troops loyal to President Bashar Assad and rebels trying to oust him.

The UN has called on the warring sides to allow aid workers to resume distribution of food and medicine immediately.

 

A photo provided by the group Palestinians of Syria shows Israa al-Masri, a baby who later died of hunger-related illness on Jan. 11, 2014 in the Palestinian neighbourhood of Yarmouk in Damascus, Syria. 

Filippo Grandi, the Commissioner General of UNRWA said the Palestinian refugees are “traumatised by what they have lived through” and need urgent assistance.

More than 100 people have died in Yarmouk since mid-2013 of illnesses exacerbated by hunger, according to the U.N., and about half of the camp’s 150,000 residents have fled.

 

Syrians walking past destroyed vehicles after fighting between rebels and Syrian troops in the Yarmouk camp.

 

Yarmouk is the largest of nine Palestinian camps in Syria. Since the camp’s creation in 1957, it has evolved into a densely populated residential district. Several generations of Palestinian refugees have lived there.

 

The chief of the United Nations relief agency supporting Palestinian refugees, Filippo Grandi, said he is "deeply disturbed and shaken" by the despair and destruction he'd seen.