UN security council to vote on draft resolution demanding 30-day truce in Syria, as government and allies accused of destroying healthcare
The medical system in eastern Ghouta is near collapse, medics and doctors say, after nearly a week of airstrikes that have hit 22 hospitals and clinics and led to widespread claims that civilian healthcare in the besieged area is being systematically annihilated.
Medics inside Ghouta claimed only three medical facilities remained fully operational and all were overwhelmed with mass casualties that continued to arrive throughout Thursday – the fifth day of a blitz by Russian and Syrian jets across the opposition enclave. Médecins Sans Frontières said 13 hospitals it supported had been destroyed or damaged in the past three days alone.
As the damage and death toll from the strikes continued to mount, international organisations that monitor the Syria crisis alleged there was clear evidence that hospitals were deliberately targeted.
“The unspeakable suffering we are witnessing was deliberately planned and meticulously implemented over time,” said Susannah Sirkin, the director of international policy at Physicians for Human Rights, an NGO. “The current situation is the lethal result of a conscious strategy of besiegement, blocking of aid and, ultimately, the illegal destruction of civilian targets with bombs – a tactic the Syrian government and its allies initiated in Aleppo, and are now repeating with brutality in eastern Ghouta.”
In an effort to address the situation in Ghouta, the United Nations security council will vote on Friday on a draft resolution demanding a 30-day truce in Syria to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations, but it was not immediately clear if the text had won the support of Syrian ally Russia.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed on Wednesday for an immediate end to “war activities” in Ghouta.
