'We love peace, hate war': plea of Yarmouk Camp

(Editing by Yusra Ahmed)

Ayham Ahmed, the pianist who sang with children in roads of Yarmouk camp during its siege, tells the world: “we are people love peace, don’t want war, please give us the peace, give us the childhood.”

In those few words, Ahmed faces the world that refuses to hear the Syrians’ shouts of pain for 4 years.

With music and children, Ahmed confronted the siege imposed on Yarmouk camp for Palestinian refugees, started in the end of 2012, where people found nothing to eat, forcing them to eat grasses, then scholars and sheiks issued a permission to allow eating dogs, cats and donkeys.

One of his touching songs was surfaced on the internet, was the one with a girl full of hope and ambition, they kept calling Yarmouk’s people all over the world to come back because the camp missed them.

The song called “Yarmouk misses you my brother”, where the word “Khayya” the distinctive Palestinian expression to mention the "brother” all over the song.

After the recent development and the brutal attack of Islamic State (ISIS) following the severe siege by Syrian regime for more than two years, activists have launched a new campaign to spread the word “Khayya”, taking the theme from the song of the ambitious girl and Ahmed, in an attempt to keep the Palestinian spirit of Yarmouk, the main Palestinian gathering in exile.

In February 2014, after long and unbearable state of hunger and lack of food, children milk and medicine, people were forced to reconcile with the regime to let essential food in, However the regime controlled food’s entry to the area to pressurise people under claims that food would go to “terrorists” or to areas which did not go for truce and reconciliation.

Last week, and out blue, Islamic State which rules swathes of Syria and Iraq and is the target of U.S.-led air strikes, has taken most of Yarmouk from rival groups while the Syrian army surrounded the area.

Yarmouk became a battleground before the siege, and has been devastated by street fighting, air attacks and shelling. The United Nations anticipated that around 3,500 children were still trapped.

Yarmouk was home to half a million Palestinians before the Syrian conflict began in 2011. The war has killed 220,000 people and displaced millions of Syrians.