Orient Net, 09 March 2018— The head of the United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Thursday (Mar. 8) the Orient Net,  besieged Syrian enclave of eastern Ghouta had become a “hell on earth” for children and aid was urgently needed.

UNICEF executive director, Henrietta Fore, said “It is hell on earth for children. Bombing is almost unceasing and the amount of violence means that a child sees the violence, sees the death, sees the maiming.”

Assad regime is two weeks into a fierce assault to retake eastern Ghouta from opposition fighters, claiming the offensive is needed to stop ‘insurgent’ shelling of neighbouring Damascus.

Assad fierce bombardment campaign has killed more than 900 civilians since it began on February 18, according to Orient News correspondents and Syria Civil Defense rescue group.

For the 400,000 people the United Nations says live in eastern Ghouta, the assault has come after years of siege that has caused shortages of food and medicine.

UNICEF chief stressed for the urgency of humanitarian aid access to eastern Ghouta, “We need in the humanitarian community a chance to deliver assistance. The convoys need to go in with food and with supplies, and the last convoy, that was only half unloaded.”

A UN aid convoy was allowed into eastern Ghouta on Monday, but some medical supplies were stripped from it, and it had to leave before it had finished unloading because of the fighting.