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AL-BAB, SYRIA – APRIL 19: “The most valuable thing was bread in eastern Ghouta,” says Mahmud Sahap, a resident of Douma, which was recently hit by a suspected chemical weapons attack on April 7. “In order to be able to buy barley, we were waiting in line for two to three days.” “When we did not have any bread, we were eating spinach. We were trying to plant vegetables. There was very little land to plant on because there were ruins of buildings everywhere,” Sahap adds. "Even the sky was under blockade," he says. “We were living in shelters. Some people died under our eyes in the chemical attacks.” “One day before coming here, I buried my four-year-old daughter. Was she a terrorist?” he asks. “In the attacks, my seven children were killed. They were shooting civilians, not the battlefield. Our life was like this. “Even the richest person was not able to buy something to eat for breakfast. Yogurt, olive oil, sugar, and tea, we were not able to buy them. Our house was destroyed. We lost our everything.” The regime recently managed to seize the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta -- one of the opposition’s last strongholds on the capital’s outskirts -- following sustained attacks and a five-year blockade. Humanitarian access to the area, which is home to 400,000 people, had been completely cut off. Over the past eight months, regime forces had intensified their siege, making it nearly impossible for food or medicine to get into the district and leaving thousands of civilians in need. (Footage by eha el Halebi/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)