Bomb blasts in Damascus. Photo: Screenshot.

Another recent escalation in the 20-month-old Syrian civil war has caused thousands of Palestinians to flee as the government began attacking the Yarmouk Camp district of Damascus, Israel Hayom reported.

Thousands of government soldiers and hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles have surrounded the camp, which is home to 150,000 Palestinians. This action has led to concern from the U.S. and the UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.

Thousands of Palestinians have begun to flee Syria to neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Jordan as a result, generating growing concern in those governments.

The influx of thousands of Palestinian terrorists from Jordan into Lebanon following the 1970 “Black September” event destabilized Lebanon’s delicate sectarian balance, leading to a 15-year bloody civil war.

Jordanian officials also fear the influx of Palestinians into already overcrowded Syrian refugee camps in that country.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council is drafting a resolution to extend UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights—known as the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)—for another six months to prevent further escalation between Israel and Syria.

In early December, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accused Syria of “serious violations” of the 1974 UN ceasefire resolution between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights.

“I am concerned that the presence of armed members of the opposition and the ongoing military activities of the Syrian security forces have the potential to ignite a larger conflict between Israel and the Syrian Arab Republic with grave consequences,” Ban said at the time.