In 4 consecutive days, the besieged Ghouta witnesses the death and injury of more than 2000 civilians, and the destruction of 9 medical centers amid increasing tragedy of people, loss of food and medicine

Rif Dimashq Province, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights: the aerial and ground shelling coincided with to target areas in the besieged Ghouta, which has been witnessing since the evening of last Sunday a continuous fierce onslaught by the regime forces and allies, in preparation for a wide military operation led by the regime forces under the leadership of the Brigadier General Suhail al-Hassan, the aim of which is to control the area, where the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored targeting by regime’s helicopters this evening for areas in Harasta city by 4 barrel bombs, followed by dropping barrel bombs on Madyara and Douma, amid the bombardment of warplanes on areas in Ein Tarma town and other places in the towns of Otaya and KafrBatna, and other areas in the cities of Harasta, Douma, Hamuriya and Jesrin, where the renewed shelling caused the death of 4 citizens and injured about 20 others, raising to 314, including 72 children and 45 women, the number of martyrs documented by the SOHR since Sunday evening the 18th of February 2018, and the casualties are: 42 citizens including 4 children and 3 women, were killed in bombardment by helicopters by explosive barrels on Kafr Batna town and airstrikes on Jesrin town, 128 citizens including 29 children and 16 women were killed on Tuesday, in the shelling on the areas of Nashabiyah, Otaya, Arbin, Zamalka Mesraba, Hamuriya, 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 citizen women were killed on the evening of Sunday, in aerial, missile and artillery bombardments on Saqba, Mesraba, Otaya and Ashari area.

Also the shelling has injured about 1700 civilians with varying severity, some of whom are in serious conditions, which may increase the death toll, in addition to the presence of dead bodies under the rubbles caused by the artillery and aerial shelling on the Ghouta.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitored a decrease in the chances for the wounded to receive treatment, or even rescue the critical cases, due to the fierce and savage shelling, which cause 3 medical points to be out of service in Douma city and Madyara city by barrel bombs of helicopters, and in Jesrin by warplanes’ bombardment, raising to 9, the number of hospitals and medical points that went out of service until now, which are –in addition to the aforementioned medical points- : a medical point in Beit Sawa, Dar Al-Shifaa Hospital in Hamuriya, a medical point in Kafr Batna, Arbin Surgical Hospital in Arbin city, and 2 other hospitals in Saqba, and got them all out of service, to decrease the ability of medical capacity even more, and crowd the places with the wounded who flock as a result of intensive and continuous shelling by the regime forces,  led by the Brigadier Suhail Al-Hassan, which paves the way for a wide military operation in the Eastern Ghouta, through which the regime forces aim to regain the control of it, 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.

And the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights published today morning that 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.