A/HRC/39/65 cloths to use as makeshift facemasks, and to evacuate the affected areas. In both incidents, first responders effectively treated symptoms with oxygen and bronchodilators (for example, salbutamol), a procedure commonly followed to treat exposure to chlorine. 40. Concerning munitions used on both 22 January and 1 February, the Commission obtained and assessed material evidence, including metadata analysis, and identified a surface-to-surface, improvised rocket-assisted munition (“IRAM”). While munitions of this type have been employed by a range of actors across the Syrian Arab Republic, the particular design of the munitions observed during the two attacks indicated a type known to have been used only by government forces or, rarely, by affiliated militias. Specifically, the munitions documented were built around industrially produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to forces commanded by the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic. The foregoing attacks follow a pattern previously documented by the Commission concerning the use of chemical weapons by government forces and consistently observed since April 2014. 16 The Commission concludes that, on these two occasions, government forces and/or affiliated militias committed the war crimes of using prohibited weapons and launching indiscriminate attacks in civilian populated areas in eastern Ghouta. 41. Government forces initially laid siege to Yarmouk camp in July 2013, encircling some 18,000 civilians and preventing the entry of humanitarian aid. The operation to recapture the area began on 19 April with a campaign on neighbouring Al-Hajar al-Aswad district. Aerial and ground operations were carried out by the Syrian army, affiliated militias, including Palestinian militias and the National Defence Forces, and Russian aerospace forces. Throughout the campaign, damage to residences and civilian infrastructure was severe, resulting in numerous families living in dire circumstances. 42. During the period under review, several distinct armed groups and terrorist organizations were present in Yarmouk camp, in particular ISIL, which exercised control over two thirds of the camp and over adjacent areas, including Al-Hajar al-Aswad district (see para. 10 above). Throughout the campaign, ISIL members indiscriminately bombarded government-held positions located on the outskirts of the camp. Members of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham controlled areas in northern Yarmouk, while FSA fighters also maintained a presence in the camp. FSA groups also controlled the areas east of Yarmouk, including Yalda, Babila and Beit Sahem. 43. Between 19 and 24 April, pro-government forces increased bombardments of Yarmouk camp, displacing up to 5,000 civilians to neighbouring Yalda. On 26 April, a spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) described the unfolding situation as “unimaginably brutal for civilians”. Two days later, on 28 April, pro-government forces recaptured Al-Mazniyeh, Al-Joura, Al-Asali and Al-Qadam in southern Rif Damascus; by 5 May, they controlled two thirds of Yarmouk camp. By 20 May, government forces fully captured Al-Hajar-al-Aswad; immediately afterwards, buses entered the enclave to evacuate the ISIL fighters. 44. Government forces announced on 21 May that Yarmouk camp and its environs – the last opposition redoubt in Damascus – had been successfully recaptured, marking the Government’s complete control over the capital governorate after more than five years of intermittent siege and clashes. Up to 10,000 civilians subsisting in Yarmouk were affected by the final battle. 45. Although UNRWA had been able to provide food, hygiene items and basic medical services inside Yarmouk camp since January 2014, its operations were intermittent and severely affected by hostilities. Clashes and bombardments over Yarmouk intensified in April 2015, when ISIL militants captured two thirds of the camp, thereby severing access to UNRWA and rendering civilians extremely vulnerable. 46. In April 2013, government forces laid siege to Yarmouk camp, compounding the suffering of civilians and thereafter systematically denying humanitarian aid deliveries. In 16 For chemical weapons attacks documented by the Commission of Inquiry as at 15 January 2018, see www.ohchr.org/SiteCollectionImages/Bodies/HRCouncil/IICISyria/COISyria_ChemicalWeapons.jpg. 9