Aids convoy enters Eastern Ghouta in Syria

An aid convoy with urgently needed supplies has reached the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta area of Syria, for the first time since mid-February.

The Syrian Red Crescent said 46 truckloads of food parcels were delivered to 27,500 people, along with health items for more than 70,000 people in the town of Douma, the BBC said on Monday.

Shelling and gunfire were heard despite a supposed five-hour truce. At least 719 people have been killed in recent weeks, many of them children. Fourteen civilians died in government air strikes overnight, activists say, the BBC reported.

The number of victims killed in the town of Jisrin has increased to 11 civilians, including four children and two women, after continuous bombing targeted the city, say the Syria Civil Defence, also known as the White Helmets, a group of volunteers who helps civilians caught up in the fighting, according to the BBC.

Another 5,640 people have been injured in the Eastern Ghouta, an agricultural region east of the capital Damascus, according to a local opposition-run health directorate.