Aleppo Hospital Airstrikes Cut Off Civilian Access to Medical Care in Syria

iStock/Thinkstock(LONDON) — Airstrikes pounded rebel-held Aleppo Monday for the seventh day in a row, leaving civilians with little access to treatment after multiple hospital attacks.

“I am well, but I don’t know for how long,” Mohamad Abu Rajab, a radiologist in eastern Aleppo, told ABC News in Arabic. “Every day, I say goodbye to a new member of the medical staff who has died.”

He said he has hidden in a shelter for two days because of the heavy airstrikes.

Since the Syrian government and its Russian allies kicked off a renewed bombing campaign on eastern Aleppo, several hospitals have been damaged by multiple bombardments. The World Health Organization Sunday said no hospitals were functioning inside the besieged city, leaving more than 250,000 people with no access to trauma care and major surgeries.

Eastern Aleppo hospitals that are already out of service were attacked, activists said Monday. Even though the hospitals were not functioning, members of staff were still inside, trying to save equipment.

“The situation is miserable,” Farida, a doctor in Aleppo who gave only her first name out of fear for repercussions, told ABC News in Arabic. “The airstrikes haven’t stopped for several hours.”

The White Helmets, a volunteer corps of first responders, reported that 29 civilians had been killed Sunday in Aleppo and its countryside, and that four children and their parents were killed after a poisonous gas attack on Aleppo’s opposition-held al-Sakhour neighborhood.

Syrian government warplanes Monday morning raided eastern Aleppo and dropped barrel bombs on several of its neighborhoods, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Clashes between rebels and government forces also continued in the northern and southern part of the city, the Observatory said.

“Crazy targeting is back again today,” said Wissam Zarqa, a teacher in eastern Aleppo. “My neighborhood has been targeted more than 10 times today.”

Eastern Aleppo has not received any U.N. aid since July and its residents have little access to food, water and health care.

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