A/HRC/37/72 morning. Several similar incidents occurred throughout late October, including in other areas such as Beit Sawa. 11. The United Nations Security Council has issued numerous resolutions calling “on all parties to lift all sieges on populated areas, including in … Eastern Ghouta” (Res. 2139); expressing deep disturbance “by the continued, arbitrary and unjustified withholding of consent to relief operations and the persistence of conditions that impede the delivery of humanitarian supplies to destinations within Syria, in particular to besieged and hard-toreach areas” (Res. 2165); and expressing grave concern at the “the use of starvation of civilians as a method of combat, including by the besiegement of populated areas” (Res. 2258). Despite these resolutions, the brutal siege of eastern Ghutah endures. 12. The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has further commented that “besiegement belongs in the Middle Ages”. 2 The siege of eastern Ghutah has been characterised by pervasive war crimes including the use of prohibited weapons, attacks against civilian and protected objects, starvation as a method of warfare leading to severe acute malnutrition, and the routine denial of medical evacuations. Indeed, Government forces routinely deny humanitarian evacuations for wounded and sick civilians and fighters until surrender (truces) and subsequent evacuation, granting it only in rare instances when successful exchanges can be carried out (see A/HRC/36/55, para. 27). II. Use of prohibited weapons A. Chemical weapons 13. During the period under review, Government forces continued to use chemical weapons against armed group fighters in eastern Ghutah. After using chlorine against Faylaq ar-Rahman fighters in Ayn Tarma, Zamalka, and Jowbar (Damascus) in early July (see A/HRC/36/55, para. 71), the Commission documented the use of chemical weapons against Ahrar al-Sham fighters in Harasta. In the early morning hours of 18 November, a number of weapons fell on the Harasta frontline. Minutes later, 25 fighters suffered from a combination of symptoms including blurred vision, unconsciousness, contracted pupils, shortness of breath, nasal secretions, vomiting, and headaches. Two other fighters who went to the rescue reported experiencing similar symptoms. Victims were taken to a medical point where their clothes were removed, they were washed with water, and given oxygen, atropine, and pralidoxime. There were no fatalities. Most of the fighters were released from the medical point within 24 hours, though some reported suffering from symptoms up to three days later. 14. The symptoms reported and treatments described are consistent with a small-scale chemical attack involving an organo-phosphorous pesticide. The small number of casualties, the absence of fatalities, and the relatively mild symptomology with quick recovery all suggest that a small dose of chemical agent was released on the Harasta frontline. Some interviewees also reported that it rained shortly after the attack, which would have limited effects farther away. 15. The information available is insufficient to establish the weapons delivery system. Some victims said they did not see the weapon that caused the explosion, which released white smoke, and others said it was caused by an artillery shell. Second-hand information suggesting the agent originated from a hand-grenade, which would be an extremely unlikely delivery system, was denied by victims. While the Commission is unable to establish the delivery system, it notes that the attack follows a pattern of Government forces using chemical weapons against fighters in eastern Ghutah, including in three instances in July, and that there are no documented incidents of armed groups using organophosphorous pesticides. Interviewees consistently said they believed the weapon originated 2 22 UN NEWS CENTRE, ‘Medieval’ sieges, barrel bombs are ‘disgusting reality’ in Syria — senior UN officials, 23 June 2016, available at www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=54308#.Wlu0BK6 nHIU.