A senior Palestinian official said Monday he was headed to Damascus for talks on helping residents inside the Yarmouk refugee camp, parts of which have been overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group.
Hundreds of families have been evacuated from the camp in a southern neighborhood of Damascus after ISIS militants launched on attack on Wednesday.
Palestinian forces inside Yarmouk are largely surrounded by ISIS fighters who have captured large parts of the camp.
Ahmed Majdalani, an official with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told AFP that he would discuss with Syrian officials “ways to offer help to our people in the Yarmouk camp”.
In a statement, the PLO called for “all sides to immediately agree to protect the camp from efforts to turn it into a battlefield.”
It also called for civilians to have access to relief corridors and to humanitarian and medical assistance.
Majdalani accused ISIS militants of “seeking to control the whole camp” and to use it “as a springboard for attacks on the Syrian capital Damascus because of its strategic location.”