The Telegraph
To treat my patients, I drive down the only road leading into my city, before sunrise, with the headlights of my car turned off.
I travel Castello road knowing that dozens of people like me have died here. I do this because it is the only way to reach the children in my hospital.
Now, the road is closed. My city is fully besieged. And without your help, my young patients will soon be dead.
Last week, the Syrian regime, backed by Russian bombers, closed Castello road and trapped 300,000 men, women and children in Aleppo.
Syrian civil defence workers rescue a wounded young man from under the rubble of a collapsed building following reported air strikes on July 17
They also locked out many of us doctors who travel in and out of Aleppo. I am one of those locked out.
I am desperate to get back to my patients. I spend every minute of every hour, planning my route back to Aleppo—on foot if necessary. I do this knowing that once inside, I will die.
My city is under siege. Aleppo’s last stockpiles of food and medicine are dwindling. Nurses have no more formula to treat premature babies. Mothers are running out of food to feed their children.
Regime artillery, snipers and airstrikes target everything that moves. And now those trapped inside are given an ultimatum: leave Aleppo or be annihilated.
On 28 July, Russian authorities presented a plan to urge people to leave besieged eastern Aleppo through so-called ‘humanitarian’ corridors. The Russians call the proposal a ‘humanitarian initiative’ and claim that it will allow civilians to leave. It’s not that simple.
Two years ago, the regime offered to oversee similar ‘humanitarian’ exits from another besieged Syrian city, Homs. When innocent civilians fled, they were killed or detained and tortured in Assad’s prisons.
Russia’s proposal would force me to choose between saving my own life and abandoning my patients. I cannot make that choice. I should not have to make that choice.
Russia’s plans for Aleppo are sinister. Russia does not want to end the crisis in Aleppo because it is responsible for the crisis in Aleppo.
Russia’s military support to the Syrian regime provides the power for the regime’s stranglehold on the city. Russian airstrikes decimate Aleppo’s hospitals and schools. Russian bombs cut off access to humanitarian aid.
The guise of ‘humanitarian corridors’ is nothing but a ploy to set the stage for the annihilation of Aleppo’s residents. We are being exterminated and the world is doing nothing to stop it.
For years Syrians have heard other countries promise to protect us from the bombs and bring us aid.
We know that anti-ISIS strikes approved last year in the UK were supposed to be accompanied by civilian protection and improved aid access. Neither has happened.
Now, US Presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, seems to understand the importance of civilian protection. She has promised to stop the bombs. But we cannot wait for an election. Everyone in Aleppo will be gone if nothing is done in the coming days.
By the time Clinton wins - if she wins - more than three thousand further civilian lives will likely be lost across Syria.
I still have hope. I ask you to help stop Russia and the regime from bombing innocent people in Aleppo and across Syria. Every country has a responsibility to stop the bombs and prevent genocide.
Call on your government and the international community to break the siege and enforce a no- bombing zone.
A Syrian family runs for cover amid the rubble of destroyed buildings following a reported air strike on the rebel-held neighbourhood of Al-Qatarji
Syrian regime and Russian airstrikes are the leading killer of civilians in Syria. A no-bombing zone would create consequences for airstrikes targeting civilians and would act as a deterrent.
Experts report that stopping the bombs in this way would be feasible and would not require boots on the ground or planes in the air. Instead, it would save lives, increase access to humanitarian aid, and make a political solution more likely.
World leaders say there is only a political solution to the Syria crisis. Yet each and every day, the Assad regime and Russia create new military realities on the ground, making a sustainable solution harder to achieve.
Across Syria, the situation is escalating and worsening, threatening security far beyond Syria’s borders. The international community knows this and yet it fails to protect civilians and open a way for a political solution.
We cannot let this go on. We need international action to stop the bombs. Even the children of Aleppo understand this. Over the past week, Aleppo’s children took to the streets to create their own no-bombing zone.
Across Aleppo, children are collecting and burning rubber tires in a desperate bid to blind bombers so they cannot target schools, hospitals and homes.
Today, Syria’s children are bravely taking the steps that we’ve begged the international community to take over the past five years.
But just like medical supplies and food, Aleppo will soon run out of tires. We may only have days before our city and everyone still trapped inside it are gone.
Syrians need more than smoke curtains to stop Assad and Russia from exterminating Aleppo.
We need the international community. And that means pressure from you. Tell your government, tell the UN, tell every international institution that the world can still break the siege and stop the bombs. Please, save us. Save Aleppo.