The starving people of a Damascus suburb, enduring one of the longest sieges in Syria’s civil war, were prevented from receiving aid on Thursday when Bashar al-Assad’s forces turned back a desperately-needed convoy.

As the trucks drove away, the regime then shelled the suburb of Daraya, which Assad has blockaded since November 2012.

The regime has prevented any aid from reaching Daraya, with about 8,000 surviving inhabitants, since that month.

But the authorities had granted permission for one convoy of five lorries to reach the area, carrying medical supplies, vaccinations and baby milk - although no food.

In the event, the convoy was “refused entry” to Daraya despite having obtained “prior clearance from all sides,” according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which organised the trucks alongside the UN and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

Daraya is only two miles from the aid warehouses of central Damascus, yet the regime has kept the area inaccessible.

After the convoy was turned back, a father and son who had been waiting for the aid were killed by shells, apparently fired by Assad’s forces.