Via MSF.org: Syria: Massive displacement in Northern Syria as violence escalates and intensifies. Excerpt:
At least 35 Syrian patients and medical staff have been killed, and 72 wounded, in a significant increase of air strikes on hospitals in Northern Syria, according to health staff supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) inside Syria.
The escalation of attacks, which began in late September, have targeted twelve hospitals in Idlib, Aleppo, and Hama governorates throughout October, including six hospitals supported by MSF.
Overall, six hospitals were forced to close, including three supported by MSF, and four ambulances destroyed. One hospital has since reopened yet access to emergency, maternity, paediatric and primary health care services remains severely disrupted.
As a result of the wider attacks in the region, tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes. Some have sought refuge in fields and nearby villages. According to MSF community health workers, others have fled further with some 1,700 families joining an existing 110,000 internally displaced Syrians in four cluster camps spread around Atmeh, located in Idlib governorate. Two hundred and twenty five additional families alone have arrived over the past week alone.
“After more than four years of war, I remain flabbergasted at how International Humanitarian Law can be so easily flouted by all parties to this conflict,” said Sylvain Groulx, Head of MSF for Syria. “We can only wonder whether this concept is dead. So many humanitarians and health actors including MSF have repeatedly called and are calling for an immediate halt to such attacks across the country, but are our voices being heard?”
