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AFP
Damascus
The United Nations said it plans to deliver much-needed humanitarian assistance on Monday to Syrians besieged in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta near Damascus.
A convoy that would enter the enclave would consist of"46 truckloads of health and nutrition supplies, along with food for 27,500 people in need", the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, said on Sunday in a statement.
Eastern Ghouta's 400,000 residents have lived under regime siege since 2013, facing severe shortages in food and medicine.
Ali al-Zaatari, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Syria who will be leading Monday's operation, said:"We hope that the convoy may proceed as planned and will be followed by other convoys."
"Our teams on the ground are ready to do all that is needed to make this happen," Zaatari added.
Russia-backed regime forces have since February 18 killed more than 640 civilians -- including over 150 children -- in a ferocious bombardment of Eastern Ghouta, one of the armed opposition's last strongholds in the country.
Fighting on the ground has intensified, with government forces reportedly advancing on several fronts since Thursday and are said to have recaptured two areas in the east and southeast of the enclave.
