syria-un-20180622 3

S/2018/619 18-09778 3/22 Talbisah and Tulul al-Humr. While those convoys proceeded on 30 May, United Nations personnel were not permitted to participate, on security grounds. 3. Since the adoption by the Security Council on 24 February 2018 of its resolution 2401 (2018), in which the Council demanded a cessation of hostilities, military conflict has continued in many parts of the Syrian Arab Republic. Throughout May, air strikes, artillery shelling and sniper fire were reported in the governorates of Aleppo, Idlib, Ladhiqiyah, Dayr al-Zawr, Homs, Hama, Damascus, Rif Dimashq, Dar‘a and Qunaytirah as military operations continued between the Government and its allied forces, and non-State armed opposition groups. Sporadic clashes occurred between government forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces in Dayr al-Zawr Governorate. 4. The reporting period saw a reduction in the number of people in areas categorized as besieged as the Government regained control of Yarmouk camp, in southern Damascus Governorate, following sustained military operations that resulted in deaths, injuries and damage to civilian infrastructure. No United Nations access to Yarmouk camp was authorized by the Government during the reporting period, although the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) was permitted to carry out a rapid needs assessment in neighbouring Yalda on 28 May. By the end of the reporting period, UNRWA had reported that Yarmouk camp itself, home to more than 160,000 people before the conflict, was largely empty and in ruins. According to the Agency’s estimates, as few as 100 Palestine refugees remained inside the camp as of late May. The reporting period also saw a reduction in the number of people in areas categorized as hard to reach, as humanitarian access improved in a number of areas that had recently come under localized agreements. 5. Following military escalation in northern Homs and southern Hama Governorates, some 35,000 people were displaced after the conclusion of local agreements between representatives of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic and non-State armed opposition groups. An additional 9,650 people were evacuated from Yalda, Babila and Bayt Saham, in Rif Dimashq. Those evacuees were transported to the north-western part of the country, where they were able to access humanitarian assistance delivered through cross-border operations. In addition, between 900 and 1,200 fighters of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and members of their families were evacuated to a desert area between the eastern part of Homs and western Dayr al-Zawr, and an estimated 400 family members of ISIL fighters were evacuated to north-western Syrian Arab Republic. The United Nations was not a party to these agreements, nor was it involved in the evacuations. 6. A significant proportion of the population of eastern Ghutah remained displaced throughout the reporting period, including an estimated 44,000 people in sites for internally displaced persons in Rif Dimashq Governorate and a similar number who had been authorized to move out of those sites through a system of sponsorship, following security clearance. An additional 66,365 people from eastern Ghutah remained in various locations in the north-western part of the country, following several rounds of evacuations in March and April. The Syrian authorities reported that some 13,500 people had returned to eastern Ghutah by the end of the reporting period. 7. United Nations personnel visited Saqba and Kafr Batna, in eastern Ghutah, on 14 May and observed the resumption of some services and commercial activity. However, damage to civilian infrastructure was extensive, with a clear need for a significant scaling-up of humanitarian assistance and protection activities. This visi