A humanitarian convoy entered Eastern Ghouta on Friday for the second time since a Syrian government assault on the rebel-held enclave began last month.
Aid trucks entered the Damascus suburb’s main town of Douma to deliver materials that aid workers say couldn’t be offloaded in the first convoy on Monday, according to the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC). Thirteen trucks carried 2,400 food parcels for 12,000 people along with 3,240 bags of flour.
Airstrikes and shelling intensified in the town when the aid convoy entered on Friday, multiple eyewitnesses on the ground told CNN.
Monday’s convoy was intended for 70,000 people in Douma, well below the broader suburb’s besieged population of 393,000. Humanitarian workers said shelling broke out as they delivered aid and they had to leave before completing the delivery.
“We delivered as much as we could amidst shelling. Civilians are caught in a tragic situation,” Sajjad Malik, the UN refugee agency representative in Syria, said in a tweet earlier this week.
More than 1,000 people have been killed in Eastern Ghouta in two weeks, according to Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
Humanitarian teams are also preparing medical supplies for delivery next week, though “that remains to be seen,” said ICRC spokeswoman Iolanda Jaquemet. Before the first delivery this month, Syrian authorities stripped aid vehicles of much-needed medical supplies.