All hospitals in eastern Aleppo out of action after bombardments
All hospitals in Syria's besieged rebel-held eastern Aleppo are out of service after days of heavy air strikes
A still shot taken from a video said to be taken on 14 November 2016, shows the damage within a hospital, said to be within the rebel-held town of Atareb, in the countryside of Aleppo
after days of heavy air strikes, its health directorate and the World Health Organization (WHO) said, though a war monitor said some were still functioning.
The last operating hospital in east Aleppo has been destroyed by airstrikes, leaving up to 250,000 residents without access to surgery or specialist care.
Another four hospitals were hit and forced to close on Friday, before the Omar bin Abdul Aziz facility was struck just after 8:30pm. According to the Guardian, this capped the most deadly day yet for the medical system in Syria’s second city, which has been systematically targeted by Russian and regime jets over the past year.
Intense air strikes have battered the eastern part of the city since Tuesday, when the Syrian army and its allies resumed operations after a pause lasting weeks. They launched ground attacks against insurgent positions on Friday.
“They have all been repeatedly attacked over the last few days,” David Nott, a surgeon who has been supporting the Aleppo doctors, said.
“I don’t think in all my years of doing this I’ve seen such dreadful pictures of injuries, of people lying on the floor in an emergency room, the dead mixed with the living,” Nott said.
At least two doctors were among the dead, he added.
“The Aleppo hospitals have been re-opened so many times, underground or in new locations, but between the bombing and the siege I don’t know if it will be possible to resurrect them this time.”
The war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 48 people, including at least five children, had been killed in eastern Aleppo on Saturday by dozens of air strikes and barrel bombs and dozens of artillery rounds.
That brings the number of people killed by the increased bombardment of Aleppo and the surrounding countryside over the past five days to about 180, including 97 in the city's besieged eastern sector, the observatory added.
Médecins Sans Frontières said east Aleppo’s hospitals had been hit by bombs in more than 30 separate attacks since the siege began in July and there was no possibility of sending help or more supplies.
