"Our dead?" he said.
Two of the villages in question are the adjacent Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya in the country's north, which have been besieged by anti-government militants for more than a year.
"The U.N. has received credible reports of people dying from starvation and being killed while trying to leave", the statement reads.
"This is a clear example of the consequences of using siege as a military strategy", said Brice de le Vingne, director of the group's operations.
Syria's government has authorized United Nations aid deliveries to the towns, including Madaya, which is northwest of Damascus and near the Lebanese border.
"We used to say nobody could ever die from hunger, but we have seen people actually die of hunger".
Located on the border with Lebanon, reports of starvation emerged earlier this week, highlighting once again the dire situation facing many inside Syria.
Extremely concerning photos have emerged from Madaya in recent days showing malnourished people. It was reported that people in Madaya has not received food since October, and as a outcome, nearly 42,00 inhabitants are at risk of starvation.
Doctors in Madaya and Zabadani, less than 40km from Assad's presidential palace, recorded 31 cases of death by starvation last month after regime and Hizbollah troops sealed the towns' exits and mined the surrounding area.
While unable to confirm Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reports that six of 23 persons who starved to death in Madaya in December were children, he voiced great concern at the devastating humanitarian situation, particularly the lack of food for children and of basic supplies amid a harsh winter.
"Madaya is not on the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe; it is already a humanitarian catastrophe", a health worker in Madaya told the Guardian.
One siege is by Daesh (the so-called IS) group, on government-held areas of the city of Deir Al-Zor.
The UN says there are almost 400,000 people in 15 such besieged locations throughout the country.
"We find that it will not be possible to start negotiations while bombardments continue on civilian areas and residents", Riad Nassan Agha, a member of the opposition body, told Reuters.
Speaking today (7 Jan) at UN headquarters, Secretary-General's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said, Yacoub El Hillo, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Syria, and Kevin Kennedy, the Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis, are calling for unimpeded humanitarian access to reach those in need in hard-to-reach and besieged areas in Syria.
Fighting over Madaya, which fell into rebel hands in 2012, was supposed to have ended this summer under a cease-fire deal that also encompassed two rebel-surrounded towns in northern Syria.
