Rebel-held area of Aleppo has no functioning hospital

Heavy bombings leave a quarter million without hospital care Heavy bombings leave a quarter million without hospital care Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

22 November 2016

All hospitals in the rebel-held section of the Syrian city of Aleppo are out of service after an air raid hit the last children’s hospital on Friday 18th November.

The Aleppo hospitals have been re-opened many times, either underground or at new locations, and all have been repeatedly attacked by the Syrian government over the past few days. The destruction has left more than a quarter-million people without hospital care, according to the World Health Organization.

Intense air strikes have battered the eastern part of the city since Tuesday when the Syrian army and its allies resumed operations after a ceasefire that lasted weeks. The area has already exhausted  most food rations, medicines, bandages and fuel. It has little water.

Medical workers believe that Russian and government attacks on hospitals are part of a systematic attempt to eliminate critical health infrastructure in the rebel-held territory. Both Russia and Assad's government have denied deliberately targeting hospitals and other civilian infrastructure during the war, which began in 2011 and was joined by Russia's air force in September 2015.

The city of Aleppo, once Syria’s commercial centre, has been divided since 2012, with the eastern half largely in rebel hands and the western largely controlled by government forces. Approximately 250,000 people are believed to be living in besieged east Aleppo.

A hospital in another neighbourhood of the city was also bombed last Thursday night, media reports said.

 

For more information, please read:

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/11/air-strike-hits-children-hospital-syria-aleppo-161118163200380.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-hospitals-idUSKBN13E096
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/aleppo-hospitals-wiped-out-by-bombings
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/11/21/middleeast/syria-aleppo-hospital-horror/
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/world/middleeast/aleppo-syria-bombs-hospital.html?_r=0

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