First Aid Convoy This Year Enters Conflict-Torn Eastern Ghouta

The first aid convoy since November entered the Syrian rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta on Wednesday, after intensive bombardment by the army killed more than 250 civilians last week.

“First U.N. and Syrian Red Crescent inter-agency convoy this year crossed conflict lines to Nashabieh in Eastern Ghouta to deliver food, health and nutrition supplies for 7,200 people in the besieged enclave,” the U.N. humanitarian affairs office said.

#Breaking: #Humanitarian aid to #Eastern_Ghouta@SYRedCrescent w/@UN delivering #aid convoy (9 Trucks) to Al-Nishabieh in #Rural_Damascus, #Syria
The convoy carried relief items of #food parcels, #flour, #nutrition, #medicines and #medical materials for 1440 #family there. pic.twitter.com/z7zOe1nKXw

— Syrian Red Crescent (@SYRedCrescent) February 14, 2018

Some 400,000 people live in the enclave outside Damascus where they have been under siege by the army since 2013, facing severe food and medicine shortages.

The U.N. Security Council is considering a draft resolution demanding a 30-day ceasefire in Syria to allow for urgent deliveries of humanitarian aid.

Sweden and Kuwait presented the draft, which would also demands an immediate end to sieges, including on Eastern Ghouta, after regime ally Russia last week rejected as “not realistic” a similar appeal by U.N. aid officials.

Nightmare of Syria’s Eastern Ghouta Siege Leaves Mark on its Residents