The regime forces and their allies unleash death towards the besieged Ghouta to take the lives of more than 500 citizens including 190 children and women and injure more than 2400 others
Rif Dimashq Province – The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the shelling on the Eastern Ghouta does not almost calm down, as the missiles and explosive barrels successively fired, amid hysteric shelling by artillery and rocket shells, on the besieged Ghouta of Damascus, where death has not absented for the 7th consecutive day, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored the continuation of aerial and ground targeting to the cities and towns controlled by the factions with and area of about 30% of the total area of the Eastern Ghouta, where the number of civilian casualties increased, while the dead bodies of a whole family (a woman and 4 of her children) were extracted, and the were killed in bombardment targeted areas in Ein Tarma town 4 days ago, while the renewed shelling resulted in the death of more citizens and the injury of tens others with varying severity, raising to at least 505 citizens including 123 children and 65 women, the number of the civilian casualties who have been killed since Sunday evening the 18th of February 2018, and the casualties are: 29 citizens including 5 children under the age of eighteen, were killed today by bombardment by warplanes on Harast, Douma, Zamalka, Beit Sawa and Al-Shiffuniyya, 41 citizens including 17 children and 2 women were killed on Friday, 73 citizens including 9 children and 8 citizen women who were killed on Thursday in bombardment by warplanes on areas in Mesraba and Aftries towns and Douma and Arbin cities, 85 citizens including 20 children and 12 women, were killed on Wednesday in bombardment by helicopters by explosive barrels on Kafr Batna town and airstrikes on Jesrin town and raids on Saqba, 133 citizens including 33 children and 17 women were killed on Tuesday, in the shelling on the areas of Nashabiyah, Otaya, Arbin, Zamalka Mesraba, Hamuriya, Saqba and Ash’ari, 127 citizens including 34 children and 23 women were killed on Monday, in the aerial and ground bombardment on Hamuriya, Beit Sawa and Saqba, Douma , Mesraba, Otaya, Nashabiyah, Zamalka, Aftries, KafrBatna, Al-Shifonyyah and Jesrin, 17 citizens including 5 children and 3 women were killed on the evening of Sunday, in aerial, missile and artillery bombardments on Saqba, Mesraba, Otaya and Ashari area.
While the number of wounded has increased to about 2435 civilians, by the aerial, rocket and artillery shelling on the Eastern Ghouta, while there are tens of missing people under the rubble caused by the rocket, artillery and aerial shelling on the cities and town in the Eastern Ghouta, which may increase the death toll, in addition to the presence of a large number of injuries, some of them have serious injuries, amid inability of the medical staff to relieve all medical cases, and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored that the bombardment of the warplanes and helicopters as well as the intensive shelling on the Eastern Ghouta, resulted in getting 10 hospitals and medical points out of service as a result of their targeting in Saqba, Douma, Beit Sawa, Jesrin, Arbin and other areas in the Eastern Ghouta, to decrease the ability of medical capacity even more, and crowd the places with the wounded who flock as a result of heavy and ongoing shelling by the regime forces, led by the Brigadier Suhail Al-Hassan.
This tragic medical reality comes with the absence of full sections in the Eastern Ghouta as a result of the lack of the specialists, where there is only one doctor for each of the specialties of vascular surgery and neurosurgery, while there are no doctors specialized in internal and heart diseases, while there is one doctor at least for gynecological diseases, who came from the east of the capital Damascus after the regime forces took the control of the neighborhoods of the east of Damascus, and after the only doctor specialized in gynecological diseases was killed during the fighting between Al-Rahman Corps and Jaysh Al-Islam in April 2016, and this tragic reality comes with the shortage of many medicines including antibiotics, antipyretics, and other medicines needed for emergency aid, also there is no place for resentment against the insanity and hysteria of the murderers of people of the besieged Ghouta, as there is no time today for its towns and cities except for death, where those who did not die by shelling would die by another way, and they are many, from a sniper bullet to shelling by mortar, artillery, tanks shells, rocket launchers, missiles believed to be ground-to-ground, to the airstrikes, a new killer, the death by explosive barrels, is added, thus, this new killer gave the chance unleashed the deadly trio in the Eastern Ghouta, to overdo in killing its people, increasing the suffering of the Eastern Ghouta and increasing its tragedy, and the cries of the residents reached the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights complaining the horror of the shelling, where one of them told the Syrian Observatory saying “those who were not killed by the regime’s missiles, the shells and raids by its warplanes as well as the Russian strikes…will be killed by hunger”, and the local and medic sources described the situation as catastrophic, where the shops were closed, and the shelling did not leave a save place for the citizens even in their homes, thus, hunger started to infiltrate to children, and the lack of food increased and doubled the suffering of the patients, after the successive destruction of medical points and hospitals in the eastern Ghouta, while the killing in Ghouta came after a long hunger and a prevention to enter food and medicine to this area, which has been besieged for years and which includes hundreds of thousands of citizens, thus, the siege, hunger, and disease were a deadly trio which is the alternative killer in the case of the absence of the shelling, increasing the tragedy of the citizens even more, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored today, Wednesday the 21st of February 2018, the closure of shops and the lack of food, in the crowd on this intensive shelling on the besieged Ghouta, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored during the past few weeks, a list of the prices of the main supplies needed at easy home, in which the price of a package of bread reaches about SP 1900 ( $ 5 ) the price of sugar is SP 2400 ( $ 6 ), the price of rice is SP 2600, the price of Bulgur is SP 2400, the price of wheat SP 1600, the price of a kilogram of flour reaches SP 3000, the price of salt reaches the same price of the flour, the price of the vegetable oil reaches SP 3500, the olive oil reaches double of the price of the vegetable oil, all of this came with the absence of the nature gas, while the other fuels of petrol and diesel fuel are presented at high prices, in which the price of a liter of petrol reaches SP 8000 which equals $ 21, while the price of the diesel fuel is SP 5000, and as a result of the lack of heating substances, the sale of firewood for heating appeared, in which the price of a kilogram of the firewood is SP 400, and the sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that some traders are able to bring foodstuffs, from time to time, through the checkpoints of the regime, but at first they have to pay taxes and bribes to the checkpoint, rated by SP 3000 for each kilogram, while the financial and alimentary conditions of some citizens dropped greatly, which led them to sell their land to people who are outside the Eastern Ghouta in return for sending them money for their living, while others sell their homes, and others head to the kitchens of the factions operating in the Eastern Ghouta, to get meals, while the rest depend on the aid of the relief organizations operating in the Eastern Ghouta.