The Syrian towns of Madaya, Fou’a and Kefraya, whose residents are facing starvation, got a reprieve Monday after a UN-brokered arrangement with Damascus was reached to end their ordeal, at least temporarily.

The three towns, whose plight came to light after photos of starving children and elderly made it in the media, have been under government siege since the summer; people there literally face starvation — many died of hunger, according to reports — a situation unimaginable and unacceptable in this time and age.

Madaya, the biggest of the three, has, or possibly had, a population of 45,000 Sunni inhabitants. It has been encircled by the Syrian army since July, prevented from receiving food or medicine.

The other two towns were also cut off from means of subsistence by armed forces belonging to the opposition.

A spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) who visited Madaya recently confirmed that the people there were starving and facing looming death, if humanitarian aid including food and medicine did not reach them soon.

“I really saw hunger in the people’s eyes. People for far too long have been left without basics of life,” said the ICRC spokesperson.

The issue here is whether starving people can be an instrument of war.

All four Geneva Conventions on armed conflicts, including their two Additional Protocols, prohibit starving the enemy or civilians caught in violence.

Thanks to the UN and ICRC, the suffering of the residents of these Syrian towns will, this time, get some relief, but their future remains bleak under the political situation in Syria.

There are many other places in this war-torn country where people are deprived of the basic life needs, under siege or attack from different fighting factions, only their fate has not made news headlines yet.

Not that they need. In a country caught in a vicious civil war like Syria’s, where scenes of destruction, of once beautiful buildings reduced to rubble, are present daily in news bulletins, life of people, pawns in the hands of ruthless, power-hungry groupings, can only be hell.

That, without mentioning the daily aerial bombardments and rocket attacks, all in clear defiance of international humanitarian law that protects civilians in times of war.

Syria has become a showcase of gross violation of humanitarian law that, shamefully, the international community cannot or will not put an end to.