The siege of Eastern Ghouta was a siege that was laid by Syrian Government forces in April 2013, to the area in eastern Ghouta held by anti-government forces since November 2012, during the Syrian civil war. The cities and villages under siege were Douma, Mesraba, Arbin, Hamouria, Saqba, Modira, Eftreis, Jisrin, as well as suburbs of Damascus Beit Sawa, Harasta, Zamalka, Ein Tarma, Hizzah and Kafr Batna. By 2016, around 400,000 people were trapped in an area just over 100 square kilometres in size, thus with a population density around 4,000 inhabitants/km2.
United Nations Security Council Resolution 2401, adopted on February 28, 2018, called for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria for 30 days, including Eastern Ghouta, but the Syrian Army continued the offensive. In March 2018, the Syrian Army split the enclave into three parts, reaching an agreement with the rebels to withdraw to the north, to Idlib. This action displaced 105,000 people from the area. Douma was the only city left by the end of that month that was not under Syrian government control.
On April 8, 2018, on the anniversary of the 2017 sarin gas Khan Shaykhun chemical attack, an agreement had been reached to evacuate remaining fighters and civilians from the last rebel-controlled pocket of Douma following the chemical weapons attack that reportedly killed 70 people, and injured 500 who displayed symptoms of "toxic gas" exposure. The Syrian Government denied responsibility, together with its allies involved in the war: Russia and Iran. More than 50,000 people, including fighters from the Jaish al-Islam and their families, have been evacuated out of the city as part of the deal, to northern Syria. Around 200 hostages loyal to the Syrian Government have reportedly been released by the rebels. Russian military police were deployed to Douma to enforce the agreement.
Thousands of people were killed during this 5-year siege period. Numerous war crimes allegations were made during the siege, among others from the United Nations Human Rights Council, including the use of prohibited weapons, attacks on civilians, attacks against protected objects (schools, hospitals), starvation as a method of warfare and denial of medical evacuation.
Background
Prior to the Syrian civil war, the total population of Eastern Ghouta, a collection of farms and cities near Damascus, was around 1.5 million people. During the civil unrest that began in Syria in March 2011, some of the eastern Ghouta residents took part in the protests against the Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad and joined the Syrian rebels and expelled Syrian government forces by November 2012. In February 2013, Syrian rebels captured parts of the ring road on the edge of Damascus and entered the Jobar district of the capital city. Backed by Iran and Hezbollah, the Syrian Arab Army counterattacked and in April 2013 began a siege of Eastern Ghouta, which is just 15 km or a half hour's drive outside the capital Damascus. Cut off from the rest of the country, the population of Eastern Ghouta resorted to incineration of plastics to generate electricity. In early 2015, when the Syrian government cut off water supplies to Duma, the population adapted yet again and dug over 600 underground wells, using manual pumps to supply water.
History
In mid-2017, the main rebel faction in the area was Jaysh al-Islam, based in Douma (with an estimated 10–15,000 fighters in the region in early 2018). The second largest was Faylaq al-Rahman, an official affiliate of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), controlling much of central and western parts of Ghouta, including the Jobar and Ain Terma districts. Ahrar al-Sham (based in Harasta) and Tahrir al-Sham (HTS – controlling smaller districts such as Arbin, al-Ashari and Beit Nayim, with an estimated strength in the area of 500 in February 2018) had a far smaller presence.
In August 2013, the area was subjected to a chemical attack that killed hundreds of people, after which an agreement was made to ban chemical weapons in Syria. From 14 to 30 November 2017, the Russian-Syrian forces conducted more than 400 airstrikes in the area, hitting markets, schools and houses, and during some of those airstrikes allegedly using banned cluster munition.
Despite efforts at turning Ghouta into a de-escalation zone, reports of bombs allegedly containing weaponised chlorine were registered again in early 2018. By January 2018, the area had only a single doctor per 3,600 people. Inter-rebel fighting in 2016 and once again in 2017 deteriorated the situation even further, showing a lack of unity among the rebel groups.