Syria Direct reports on the situation in Madayan and explains the background to the truce with the Syrian government that resulted in today's humanitarian aid being allowed to enter the town.
Syria Direct have also interviewed Amr a-Sheikh, a member of Madaya's opposition council in charge of overseeing aid to Madaya.
A few truckloads of food is not a solution, says a-Sheikh. “This morning, two more people died from starvation,” he said, bringing the total number of starvation deaths in the town to 60.
“The besieged people of Madaya do not care about the arrival of aid as much as they care about the opening of the road and a settlement to end the blockade once and for all,” says a-Sheikh.
AFP is reporting that the gunmen who detonated a car bomb, fired into a crowded area and took hostages in an eastern Baghdadi shopping mall are still holed up in the mall.
"They are inside the Zahrat Baghdad mall. When the security forces got too close, they killed three hostages," a police official said.
"We are taking a cautious approach now. We want this attack to end with the lowest possible number of casualties," the official said.
He described the mall as a building of four or five floors in a busy commercial area of Baghdad al-Jadida, a populous Shi'ite-majority area on the eastern edge of the Iraqi capital.
The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has tweeted this update about the situation in Madaya, Syria, where aid trucks have now entered the town.
The Syrian Red Crescent says that aid trucks entered the Syrian towns of Madaya, Foua and Kefraya simultaneously.
That was part of the deal to allow humanitarian aid trucks to enter Madaya.
CNN's Jim Sciutto has this update on the situation in eastern Baghdad, where gunmen stormed a mall.
Meanwhile, in France: a 15-year-old boy who attacked a Jewish teacher in Marseille earlier today is a Turkish citizen of Kurdish origin who said he acted in the name of the IS group, the prosecutor in the southern French city of Marseille said
Some 50-75 People Trapped In East Baghdad Mall After Gunmen Storm It
Police and medical officials have told AP that the gunmen who stormed a mall in a predominantly Shi'ite neighborhood of eastern Baghdad have taken between 50-75 people hostage.
Ten people have been killed including three police officers. Some 25 people have been injured.
The gunmen set off a car bomb at the entrance to the mall before storming it.
AP and the BBC are also reporting that the gunmen who stormed the shopping mall in eastern Baghdad have taken hostages.
Some reports are saying that the gunmen who stormed a mall in a Shi'ite district of Eastern Baghdad have taken hostages, but that seems to be unconfirmed.