Muslims around the world are marking the Eid al-Adha holiday
Syrian children in the capital are going hungry, activists and medics say
Food has all but run out and doctors lack the means to treat their patients
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As Muslims around the world mark the Eid al-Adha holiday, sharing festive meals, children trapped in besieged areas around the Syrian capital are going hungry, activists and medics say.
'We issued a religious edict allowing people to eat dog and cat meat. Not because it is religiously permitted, but because it is a reflection of the reality we are suffering,' said Sheikh Saleh al-Khatib, who has been on hunger strike for nine days.
'People here have nothing for their children. I am on strike because I want to help save food for others.'
Hunger: A boy eats maize as people shop ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Adha in Aleppo
Rubble: A girl pushes plastic containers of water past rubble and damaged buildings in Homs
Hard life: Children play with plastic guns in Aleppo
In some areas children have died from severe malnutrition, according to one NGO.
For Muslims, Eid is a time for children to receive new clothes and play with friends after sharing a festive meal with their families.
But in a string of rebel-held areas under a months-long army siege south and east of Damascus, activists say food has all but run out and doctors lack the means to treat their patients.
'Of course there is no Eid for the children here' in Moadamiyet al-Sham, a suburb southwest of Damascus, said activist Abu Malek.
'For them, Eid will come when they see a plate of rice and bulgur,' he added, speaking to AFP via the Internet.
Residents of Moadamiyet al-Sham are surviving on herbs and vegetables they have planted.
Shelling: A Syrian girl blows a balloon beside ruins her family fled to in fear of shelling in Jabal Al-Zawiya near Idlib
Supplies: In a string of rebel-held areas under a
months-long army siege south and east of Damascus, activists say food
has all but run out and doctors lack the means to treat their patients
'We no longer have any food in the stockpiles. Everyone is planting in the orchards and the streets,' said activist Abu Hadi, adding that no bread had entered the area for months.
But harvesting the food is dangerous, 'and people have died in the orchards because of the shelling', he said.
Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said many children in Moadamiyet al-Sham were malnourished.
'Children are worst off because they need the right kinds of food in order to grow. Adults can survive on whatever they can find, but what about the children?'
The army says 'terrorists,' its term for the rebels, have trapped civilians against their will.
But activists accuse the military of using the siege to try to turn people against the rebels.
'It is a war crime to besiege civilians,' Abdel Rahman said.
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BreakingNewsArchive
Published on Oct 16, 2013
A group of Muslim clerics in Syria have issued a fatwa, a religious ruling, permitting people living in the besieged outskirts of Damascus to eat cats, dogs and donkeys to stave off the threat of starvation.
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