Under the deal, the government is to allow safe exit to hundreds of gunmen and their families out of Daraya and let them head to the opposition-held northern province of Idlib. Under the terms of the deal, around 700 gunmen will be allowed safe exit to the opposition-held northern province of Idlib, while some 4,000 civilians will be taken temporarily to a shelter south of Daraya.
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Dr. Mohamad Diaa, a 27-year-old general practitioner in Daraya, said he would likely leave Saturday with the rebels heading to Idlib.
The United Nations, which has repeatedly called for the lifting of the siege, said it was “not involved and not consulted in this deal”, in a statement put out by the UN Special Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura’s office.
It was surrounded by loyalist forces in late 2012. He added that some civilians who wish to remain in the Damascus area would be allowed to do so.
In 2012, several hundred people were killed in Daraya, including civilians, many execution-style, when security forces stormed the suburb after locals took up arms.
The source, who asked not to be named in line with regulations, said the safety zone around Damascus has been expanded with the return of Daraya under the government control.
Daraya is the largest town in the Western Ghouta countryside, and the second most important stronghold for the rebels in the countryside of Damascus, after Douma, the major rebel bastion east of the capital Damascus.
They began leaving Friday, after a convoy of Red Crescent ambulances arrived in the early morning in Daraya, which is just southwest of Syria’s capital, Damascus. It saw some of the first demonstrations against Assad after the 2011 uprising against his family’s rule in which residents took to the streets, sometimes carrying red and white roses to reflect the peaceful nature of their protests.
According to the United Nations, almost 600,000 live under siege across Syria, most surrounded by government forces, although rebels and Islamists also use the tactic.
The evacuation marks a victory for the Syrian regime, as rebels ceded an area they’d been defending for years.
Daraya provided a stark example of the price of rebuffing truce overtures.
Some 4000 people will also be evacuated and relocated to makeshift centers which the governorate of Damascus Countryside had prepared and provided with all basic supplies, according to the agreement.
It’s a tactic, dubbed “starve or surrender”, that the Syrian government has been accused of using in a number of locations.
Reporting from Geneva, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays said the Syrian government’s “starvation of surrender policy has actually worked because they have now managed to close down Daraya and remove everyone from Daraya”. Residents and activists say it is 8,000.
“We have been waiting for Daraya for five years, we don’t want to mess up this opportunity”, he addressed the reporters and the soldiers.
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Daraya is the latest rebel-held area to surrender to government troops following years of siege.
