A Humanitarian aid convoy entered the rebel-held Syrian town of Daraya, the Red Cross has said, in the first such delivery since a government-imposed siege began in 2012.

Both the United Nations (UN) and Syrian Arab Red Crescent staff were involved in the delivery, the International Committee of the Red Cross said yesterday.

The convoy is believed to be carrying medicine but not food.

Fadi, a local activist in the area, told the dpa news agency that the convoy contained “no food supplies, only medical and school kits”.

Daraya, which lies in Western Ghouta outside the capital, Damascus, has been under an increasingly tight government siege since 2012, with no access to essential services, such as running water and electricity. No vaccinations have been carried out during that time.

Only about 8,000 people remain in Daraya, which had a population of about 80,000 before the war. But what little food can be grown locally is not enough, locals say.

On May 12, a five-truck aid convoy was turned back by the government in a dramatic 11th-hour rejection.

Yesterday’s delivery came after Russia’s foreign ministry said a local truce would be observed in Daraya for 48 hours to ensure the safe arrival of aid to the city’s besieged population.

“On the initiative of Russia and in agreement with the leadership of Syria and the American side, a ‘regime of silence’ has been introduced for 48 hours on June 1, 2016 from 00:01am in the settlement of Daraya to ensure the safe delivery of humanitarian aid to the population,” Lt.-Gen. Sergei Kuralenko said.

Russia had last week called for a 72-hour “regime of silence” in Eastern Ghouta and Daraya amid deadlocked efforts to turn a cessation of hostilities into a lasting peace in the country.

The United States and Russia are co-partners in the so-called Vienna diplomatic process of the International Support Group for Syria, which met last month in the Austrian capital but made no notable progress.

At least 280,000 people have been killed and more than half of Syria’s population have fled their homes since the conflict first erupted in 2011.