The living conditions in eastern Aleppo continue to deteriorate sharply as the siege imposed by Assad regime forces and their allied Iranian-backed militias entered its 87 day. The suffering of the people trapped in the city’s eastern parts has been further aggravated by ferocious bombing raids by the Assad regime and Russian air forces which announced the launch of a major onslaught on the rebel-held areas on November 15.
Head of the Council of Free Aleppo Governorate Abdul Razzaq Razzouk told Shaam News Network that the living conditions in eastern Aleppo were rapidly deteriorating due to the severe shortages of food, adding that people can hardly find a loaf of bread.
Razzouk pointed out that the problem of food shortages in eastern Aleppo became worse after airstrikes have hit food warehouses belonging to the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the Big Heart aid organization, Ihasan aid organization as well as those of the Council.
According to figures compiled by the Syrian Coalition’s media office, 595 people, half of them women and children, have been killed in the bombing raids on eastern Aleppo and rural Aleppo during the past 11 days. The office said that it has documented 54 massacres committed by the Assad regime and Russian forces in eastern Aleppo and 21 more in rural Aleppo. The office has also documented the use of chlorine gas by regime forces in three occasions in eastern Aleppo.
The airstrikes have knocked out nine hospitals in Aleppo and its countryside since the Assad regime and Russian forces launched the onslaught on Aleppo in November 15.
Razzouk added that the airstrikes on hospitals denied residents of eastern Aleppo access to basic medical services, noting that a large number of medical personnel were injured in the attacks on hospitals.
On November 19, the directorate of health in Aleppo province announced the suspension of work in all hospitals in the city’s besieged neighborhoods after being directly hit by airstrikes. The directorate said in a statement that it was no longer able to offer medical care to around 300,000 civilians trapped in the eastern parts of the city.
In addition to medical facilities, the airstrikes are also targeted schools in eastern Aleppo. Razzouk said that there are only 98 functioning schools out of 184 that accommodated 29,141 schoolchildren. Moreover, 27 teachers and at least 104 schoolchildren have been killed in airstrikes on eastern Aleppo in recent weeks.
Razzouk concluded his comments to Shaam News Network by stressing that this painful reality is a “dark stain on the forehead of humanity and the whole world which is idly watching the torn bodies, blood and scenes of destruction and the smell of death all around the besieged neighborhoods.” (Source: Syrian Coalition’s Media Office + Shaam News Network)
