Nothing to celebrate this Islamic New Year in Aleppo

CAIRO — The only fireworks in Aleppo, Syria on this Islamic New Year's holiday are provided by relentless airstrikes.

Normally the holiday, which falls on Monday in Syria this year, is celebrated with visits to family and friends and special feasts. But not this year, as besieged residents endure virtually non-stop bombing by Russian and Syrian warplanes since a fragile cease-fire fell apart last month.

“We are not celebrating ... not with the blood of all these people around us," said Ismail Alabdullah, 29, who works with the White Helmets, a volunteer rescue force in the eastern part of the city that Syrian government forces and their Russian allies are trying to capture from rebel groups. "Everyone in the city center is staying at home — no visiting like during a normal holiday.”

Over the weekend, Aleppo was hit by dozens of airstrikes as the Syrian government continued a fierce, week-long advance to retake what had been the country's largest city, with a pre-war population of more than 2 million. Several hundred thousand trapped civilians in need of food, water and medicine remain, according to estimates by humanitarian groups.

“They have launched a ground attack on the city with the aim of taking all the neighborhoods," Alabdullah added. "With this heavy bombing they want the surrounded people to give up.”

Alabdullah and other civilians spoke of the city's plight in interviews by telephone and Skype.

On Sunday, the Syrian government offered safe passage and aid if rebel fighters lay down their weapons and abandon the city. But Alabdullah said no one was taking up the offer.

“There is going to be a big resistance," he said. "People know about the massacres that were committed by (Syrian President Bashar) Assad forces in other regions and since they can’t leave, they will fight.”

The airstrikes damaged or destroyed a number of hospitals, according to Alabdullah and other residents. The U.S. government has accused the Russians and Syrians of intentionally targeting humanitarian aid convoys and medical facilities to break the rebels' resistance.

Those attacks have added to problems in getting medical care, since doctors, equipment and medicine already had been in short supply.

"There are not enough doctors in the city," said Waed Al Khatib, 24, who lives at Al Quds hospital, where her husband works around the clock as a doctor. “We wake up every day to the sound of cluster bombs, explosive barrels and rockets. Then the injured come to the hospital. We are running out of medical supplies."

She said a hospital was destroyed Wednesday and the city's main trauma center closed after being hit this weekend. There were eight hospitals in eastern Aleppo and about 25 doctors working in the city before this week's strikes, she said. "We can’t afford to lose more medical facilities."

"In the past there was bombing twice a day but now it’s all the time," Al Khatib added. "The streets are closed because of the rubble everywhere, and there are a lot of people under the rubble."

A shortage of cooking oil has forced people to burn wood they can gather, though they are running out of food to cook because they did not store enough supplies to endure a siege that has gone on for more than five months.

"There’s no food in the markets. There are no vegetables. There are no fruits. There is no flour. There is no sugar," said Al Khatib. "Some rice and root vegetables is all there is." Bread also became in short supply after a bakery was targeted by the bombings.

Al Khatib, who has a young daughter, said she has a new reason to hope for a good future on this holiday: She discovered two days ago that she is pregnant. "I was surprised at first," she said, "but I’m really happy to have a baby despite this war, to give new life in the middle of all this sadness."

Um Yousif, who lives in government-controlled western Aleppo, said conditions there are only slightly better. “The living conditions are poor, unfortunately," said Yousif, an aid volunteer.

She said prices for goods go up every month, residents depend on aid provided by humanitarian groups, electricity is sporadic and water is scarce. "We get water supplied one day each week or every 10 days," she said.

Al Khatib calls the intense bombing campaign "the most dangerous two weeks" since the country erupted into civil war in 2011, adding, "Many people in Aleppo think they will die this week."

Contributing: Gilgamesh Nabeel in Istanbul.