The Guardian
A humanitarian aid convoy has entered the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya for the first time since a regime siege began in 2012, the Red Cross has said.
The United Nations warned last month if it did not see improvement on aid access to besieged areas by 1 June, it would task the World Food Programme to carry out air drops of assistance in Syria.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said both UN and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff were involved in Wednesday’s delivery.
According to the rebel-held town’s local council, the convoy included medical supplies, but no food aid for starving residents.
Daraya was one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in demonstrations against the government in 2012, and one of the first to be placed under a strict regime siege in late 2012.
An estimated 8,000 people live in the town, a 15-minutes' drive south-west of Damascus.
Despite intensifying appeals from residents, the UN and rights groups, Syria’s government had repeatedly refused to allow aid into the town.
On 12 May, a five-truck aid convoy waiting on Daraya’s outskirts was denied permission to enter in a dramatic 11th-hour rejection.
“The last time, people were filling the streets waiting for the aid to come in,” Shadi Matar, an activist, said.
“This time, there was no one. They were afraid the regime will shell them and they know the convoy only holds medical aid.”
According to the UN, 592,000 people live under siege in Syria, and another 4 million live in hard-to-reach areas.
Earlier on Wednesday, Russia announced a local truce would be observed for 48 hours in Daraya to ensure that aid could be delivered safely.
The temporary freezes on fighting have been introduced in Daraya and elsewhere as a way to reinforce a broader ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US for swaths of Syrian territory.
More than 280,000 people have been killed since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.