Medical workers in the liberated areas said that the Russian and regime air forces targeted around 36 medical facilities within the last 40 days in blatant violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 which was adopted on May 3, 2016. The resolution strongly condemned attacks on medical facilities and personnel.
Mamoun Issa, a doctor based in the liberated area of Aleppo, said that at least 25 medical facilities in Aleppo were targeted by airstrikes by the Assad regime and Russian forces. Issa was speaking at a teleconference with a number of medical personnel, interim minister of health and a number of Syrian Coalition members on Tuesday.
Director of SIMA medical organization Mumtaz Hiza described the targeting of medical facilities in Aleppo as systematic and deliberate, noting that the airstrikes put five hospitals out of service in just one day in July.
The escalating attacks against hospitals are clearly aimed at depriving the civilian population in the liberated areas of medical care, consequently forcing them to leave their homes, Hiza said. He pointed out that 60% of hospitals in the liberated areas have gone out of service as a result of deliberate, continued airstrikes. Hiza referred to airstrikes that destroyed a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in the village of Millis in rural Idlib on Saturday. Thirteen people, including four members of the hospital’s staff and five children, were killed in the attack.
Hiza criticized the international community’s complete silence over such heinous crimes, stressing the need hold accountable those who gave the orders to carry out those attacks.
Health minister in the Syrian interim government Firas Aljundi said that the barbaric bombing of vital civilian infrastructure in the liberated areas is primarily aimed at the displacement of the civilian population and bringing about a demographic change in many areas across Syria.
Aljundi, however, stressed that those brutal attacks will not dissuade medical personnel from continuing to carry out their duties towards civilians in the liberated areas despite the difficult environment they operate in. He pointed out that there is only one doctor for every 10,000 people in the liberated areas.
UN Security Council adopted Resolution 2286 last May, which strongly condemned attacks against medical facilities and personnel in armed conflict. It demanded that all parties in an armed conflict should fully comply with their obligations under international law and international humanitarian law. (Source: Syrian Coalition)
