(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Aid workers have evacuated the first few ill patients from Syrian rebel bastion Eastern Ghouta under a deal struck after the UN said hundreds are in critical condition following a four-year government siege.
Three children and a man were loaded overnight into ambulances bound for hospitals in Damascus before being transported out past government lines that have held the region's estimated 400,000 residents in a stranglehold since 2013.
A total of 29 emergency medical cases are expected to be evacuated under a deal with the government that saw rebels release five workmen detained during fierce clashes with the army in March.The four patients allowed out were a girl with haemophilia, a baby with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre, a child with leukaemia, and a man in need of a kidney transplant, Red Crescent official Ahmed al-Saour said.
Eight-year-old Ingy, the girl with haemophilia, gave a broad smile as she boarded an ambulance, wearing a woolly hat and gloves against the cold.
In another ambulance, one-year-old Mohamed lay in the lap of a Red Crescent worker, his mother sitting beside them in a long black cloak and a veil showing only her eyes.
'The operation is a positive step which will bring some respite to the people of Eastern Ghouta, said International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Ingy Sedky.
'We hope these medical evacuations are only the beginning.
The Syrian American Medical Society, another medical relief organisation, said the remainder of the 29 critical cases approved for evacuation should leave in the coming days.
The dominant rebel faction in Eastern Ghouta, Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), said the rebels had agreed to free some of their prisoners in return for the evacuations.
'We have agreed to the release of a number of prisoners...in exchange for the evacuation of the most urgent humanitarian cases, the group said a statement.
The years of government siege have caused severe shortages in Eastern Ghouta, one of the last remaining rebel strongholds in Syria.
While some food is still grown locally, or smuggled in, humanitarian access to the region has been limited despite regular appeals from aid agencies.
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