Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has announced its decision not to take part in armed efforts geared towards pushing the militants of the Islamic State out of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in a released statement. Although on Thursday Ahmed Majdalani a PLO official said 14 Palestinian groups backed “a security solution” in partnership with Damascus, the statement released on Friday by the organization stated that “we refuse to be drawn into any armed campaign, whatever its nature or cover” but added that “other means to spare the blood of our people” could be used.
Before the statement of the PLO and after the comments of Majdalani, senior Fatah official Major-General Tawfiq al-Tirawi urged members of Fatah to head to Yarmouk. He stressed that their intervention in Yarmouk does not mean that they are interfering in the Syrian War but “terrorist groups like IS, al-Nusra Front and others” have dragged Palestinians into it.
The situation in Yarmouk seems to be awful after U.N Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said “a refugee camp is beginning to resemble a death camp.” He went on to say that “in the horror that is Syria, the Yarmouk refugee camp is the deepest circle of hell” and the refugees have been “turned into human shields.”
PLO said efforts will be made in coordination with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, as well as “all parties that have a common interest not to drag the camp to more devastation” in order “to stop all forms of aggression and armed actions” within the camp.
Meanwhile, the Syrian government is bombarding the camp and around 18,000 people are still believed to be there hoping to escape the fighting.
