Syria Times Reporters Tour Yarmouk Camp

Displaced Palestinian families began returning  to their houses in the Yarmouk Camp after they were enforced to leave their homes by the armed terrorist groups’ attacks on them.

The families  were forced to leave the camp last Sunday, following hard terrorists attacks on them, and they were welcomed by Syrian families, the governmental schools and UNRWA’s schools and training centers in and around Damascus.

According to Palestinian humanitarian activists about seven thousand Palestinians could return to their houses in the camp.

Syria Times reached to the camp and met with families who returned to their houses after days of displacement : Yusuf, 40, Palestinian refugee lives with his wife and four children in Aroubah quarter , southern the Yarmouk Camp said to Syria Times reporter, while he was fixing his house and preparing it for his frightened family’s members:

“ I am so happy that I could return to my house again. When we left last Sunday’s afternoon, I expected I will never ever see my  house again. We were living in peace and calm in the camp and practice normal life till those armed terrorists attacked our quarter and enforced us to leave. They were very hard with us and told us to leave in few hours or we will be killed. In a rush, I told my wife to prepare some garments and clothes for the children to leave the house. I phoned my brother who lives in Jiddedah Artouz, 15km south western Damascus, and told him to host us. My brother was very kind with us and he offered for us what we need although he is very poor man who has five sons and daughters. I will never forget the hardest two hours till we could leave the camp. The armed terrorists were touring in their arms and frighten unarmed residents who were running with their sons, women, elders and carrying big bags in their hands. I am happy that the Syrian Arab Army helped us to return to our  houses in peace. The Palestinians will never forget what the President Bashar Al-Assad and Syrian government offered them. Palestinians in Syria want to live in peace and they are guests in this country till they can return to their hometowns in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Syria Times made a tour in the camp and watched how life began returning  to normalcy. Some shops, restaurants, and bakeries are opened for people who wanted to buy their needs and food stuff. Dozens of cars and trucks were driving in the Camp’s main street.

There were some families were waiting at the Camp’s northern entrance near Al-Basher Mosque, for their relatives and families’ members to entre to the camp together.

Abu Kinan, 45, a Palestinian refugee who  works in a private textile factory southern Damascus. He lives in his father-in-law’s house, near Al-Wassim Mosque in the Yarmouk Camp, with his family because they were enforced to leave their own house in Al-Hajar Aswad suburb, southern Damascus, which was attacked by the terrorist groups. Abu Kinan’s family was enforced to be displaced  for the second time in three months. He said:

“ I am calling the Syrian Arab Army to eliminate  these terrorist groups from the country. Syria was the most secure and stable state in the region. My family and I  are suffering for more than four months from those killers who use Islam and democratic slogans to cover their crimes. We left our house in Alhajar Aswad to move to my father-in-law’s three-room house in the Yarmouk Camp. My children were suffering hard to reach to their schools and saw the armed fighters deployed  around their schools and frightening  them. I left the camp as all people did last Sunday to a governmental school in Al-Zahara to spent a hard cold night with other displaced families; then next day I went to Khan Sheih Camp, 25km south western Damascus, to my friend’s house who offered us a room to spend three days. I and other hundred of Palestinian refugees organized a big rally on Thursday, December21, calling for the  kicking off of  all armed fighters and terrorists from the camp. The Palestinian camps in Syria always were safe and secure shelters for all people and should be kept safe and unarmed zone for Palestinian refugees and their Syrian brothers. No Arab state deals with Palestinians as Syria does. We , Palestinian refugees, have equal rights as Syrian citizens in all walks of life. We can work in private and public sectors, we get free education in the governmental schools and universities, and we can get free healthcare services in public hospitals and health centres. We should reward Syria and its government for all of these favors,  not stand against it. we should stand with the Syrian leadership to overcome this crisis. Friend in deed is a friend in need.”

The Camp’s residents began cleaning streets and opening shops to stress their will to keep life in the camp and challenge the terrorist groups who wanted to take the smile from the children and pushed the residents to leave their houses. The camp could overpass the crisis and give a hope that Syria will return as it was a homeland for all Arabs.

O.H/ I A