As the Syrian rebels failed until now to break the siege imposed by Assad regime on more than 2750.000 civilians in the eastern part of Aleppo, and the regime keeps bombing the city daily in a try to retake it under its role, the only losers in this war are the Syrian civilians.
Rebels opened a corridor to the east for the month of August after pro-government forces first applied a blockade in July, but they were not able to hold it as the government and its Russian ally pounded the gap with artillery and airstrikes. Pro-government forces reapplied the siege in early September.
Assad regime, backed by Russia, said on September 22 it was starting a new wide offensive to recapture the rebel-held parts of Aleppo after a week-long ceasefire was declared officially over on 19 September.
Since 19 September, more than 800 civilians were killed and more than 2000 injured in rebel-held areas of Aleppo province, including the besieged eastern part of the city, Civil defense workers said.
There are about 275,000 people trapped by the siege of eastern Aleppo, where civilians are suffering through daily bombing, including by bunker-buster and incendiary weapons, and through starvation, as limited supplies run out and aid convoys are blocked from the city.
On Friday 29 October the rebel forces started a new military operation to break the siege, employing heavy shelling and suicide car bombs, was mainly focused on the city’s western edge by rebels based in the countryside outside Aleppo.
The rebels’ repeated offensives worsened the regime’s attacks on the residential areas. hundreds of people were buried under the rubble of their own homes.
The health and medical side was especially effected by the long siege.
There are only 30 remaining doctors in Aleppo after the others were either killed or fled the war. They have to perform amputations on children on the floor of their rudimentary emergency rooms without anesthesia or proper sterilization. They are running short on blood products, intravenous fluid, antibiotics and pain medications.
The doctors have been struggling to provide healthcare for a traumatized population of 300,000 while their hospitals are bombed daily and their medical supplies and medications are depleted.
They have been working nonstop for the past three months, dealing with the influx of a large number of polytrauma and crush patients suffering from horrible injuries, pulled from under the rubble.
Hospitals are targeted frequently in Syria, especially in Aleppo, mostly by the Syrian government and lately by Russian jets. Physicians for Human Rights has recorded 382 attacks on medical facilities, of which 344 were carried out by the regime and Russia; they were also responsible for the deaths of 703 of the 757 medical personnel killed in the war so far.
A medical association said there were only three major hospitals now remaining in the besieged city.
The two biggest hospitals in Aleppo, M2 and M10, were targeted numerous times between last September and early October until they were out of service.
The medical facility, known as M10, is “completely destroyed … It is gone”, said Adham Sahloul of the Syrian American Medical Society on October 3.
Another attack on SAMS's largest trauma hospital in eastern #Aleppo, killing 3 maintenance workers. Hospital completely destroyed. pic.twitter.com/UQgkM8OweH
— SAMS (@sams_usa) October 3, 2016
Amnesty International said the hospital bombings are part of a campaign to drive rebels out by making the besieged city a wasteland. “They aim to make life as hard as possible for opponents, their families, their neighbourhoods. Kill them or force them to leave,” he said.
“We documented early this year how airstrikes were targeting hospitals, clinics and [refugee] shelters in northern Aleppo. We believe it was in order not only to force people to flee from these areas, but also those coming from further south would not be able to stop there. The areas would be made uninhabited and uninhabitable.”
