'The deepest circle of hell:' Terrified Yarmouk residents describe ISIS raid

They took Yarmouk by storm, a sea of masked men flooding into the streets of one the world's most beleaguered places.

Besieged and bombed by Syrian forces for more than two years, the desperate residents of this Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus awoke in early April to a new, even more terrifying reality -- ISIS militants seizing Yarmouk after defeating several militia groups operating in the area.

"They slaughtered them in the streets," one Yarmouk resident, who asked not to be named, told CNN. "They (caught) three people and killed them in the street, in front of people. The Islamic State is now in control of almost all the camp."

An estimated 18,000 refugees are now trapped inside Yarmouk, stuck between ISIS and Syrian regime forces in "the deepest circle of hell," in the words of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Yarmouk, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, was formed in 1957 to accommodate people fleeing the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The camp, which sits just 6 miles from central Damascus, has been engulfed in fighting between the Syrian government and armed groups since December 2012.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says ISIS and the al Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front control about 90% of the camp. The organization also claims that the Syrian government has dropped barrel bombs on the camp in an effort to drive out armed groups.

Activists and residents in Yarmouk tell CNN that as many as 5,000 people have tried to flee their homes since ISIS stormed the camp, but have no place to go.

Hundreds have been injured, but the camp's only functioning hospital was first occupied by ISIS, then targeted last week by regime shelling.

 

 

As the fighting raged in Yarmouk, the director of the Jafra Foundation -- the only aid group that has been able to get into the camp -- painted a grim portrait of the conditions on the ground since ISIS arrived.

"We need medicine and access to treatment and medical facilities," Wesam Sabaneh told CNN. "The last hospital in Yarmouk camp was bombed yesterday, so there's really nothing functioning."

Even delivering clean water in Yarmouk can be a deadly task. Majed Alomari, the Jafra Foundation's water coordinator, was killed a few days ago -- gunned down in an ISIS firefight with rival rebel groups.

The head of the Palestinian League for Human Rights in Syria (PLHR), which fled the camp when ISIS took over, said the people left behind were in dire need of help.