The children in Eastern Ghouta, the region that marches along the eastern perimeter of Damascus, aren’t sleeping anymore these days.
That’s because the rumble and roar of air strikes and bombs exploding around them is getting much louder as their homes are battered into rubble.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley urged the United Nations Security Council earlier this week to take action on a newly-drafted cease-fire drafted by Washington that “provides no room for evasion.”
. Amb Haley: For sake of the people of & integrity of , we must respond & take action. The ceasefire has failed. The situation of civilians in is dire & the US is acting. We have drafted a new ceasefire resolution that provides no room for evasion. pic.twitter.com/yTUDCj8JJV
— Department of State (@StateDept)
Russia’s Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov responded with accusations that Syrian rebels were planning a “chemical weapons provocation” in eastern Ghouta – with White Helmets “on-scene” – for the U.S. to use as a pretext to carry out missile and bomb strikes on the government district of Damascus.
There have been multiple allegations leveled by the Syrian regime that government forces found a “clandestine workshop” for the manufacture of chemical weapons by Syrian rebels in Eastern Ghouta.
But it’s clear to those who are living in the area that it’s not the Americans who are wielding the chemical warfare, and civilians are still dying. Events are moving fast in the region. And far too slowly to save lives.
Teenage journalist Muhammad Najem reports from the scene that cluster bombs are “falling from the rockets launched by [President] Bashar al-Assad and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin on children and civilians” in the besieged region, “as well as the use of most weapons, including napalm, explosive barrels and many more.”
These are some of the cluster bombs that fell from the rockets launched by Bashar al-Assad and Putin on children and civilians inside the besieged East Gauta, as well as the use of most weapons, including napalm, explosive barrels and many more. pic.twitter.com/xdWS6aRdFC
— muhammad najem (@muhammadnajem20)
An International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy entered the area on Thursday with the Syrian Red Crescent and United Nations vehicle escort, bringing aid to thousands of displaced families.
“On our way to #Douma #EasternGhouta to deliver more aid with @SYRedCrescent and @UN. 25 trucks waiting at Wafedin camp to enter. This is just a little of what these families need,” ICRC Syria tweeted Thursday morning.
Barely an hour earlier, the White Helmets Syrian Civil Defense organization announced via Twitter that one of their volunteers, Ayman Jamal al-Don, was killed when a Russian double air strike targeted the ambulance personnel proceeded on foot to rescue civilians in the town of Haza in Eastern Ghouta after their service center and ambulance were “completely destroyed.”
Below is a video of white phosphorous being dropped against civilians overnight in Kafr Batna, Eastern Ghouta.
HELL on earth in . White Phousphorous is used against civilians over night in Kafr Batna. . This is not a movie. This is happening for real in . Who will hear our cries???
Please Share. pic.twitter.com/Rav8ceI0vP— Dr Shajul Islam (@DrShajulIslam)
Finally, below is a tweet that expresses the bottom line – the true status of the Syrian civilian at this point in time, in Eastern Ghouta. To this writer, it resurrects the horror of war, and worse, the horror of being hunted – our own history, the Holocaust of World War II.
Urgent!!! Message from Dr.Ismail of . He’s asking us to be his voice! Please share everywhere!!!! pic.twitter.com/m11zBFPTqK
— Dr Shajul Islam (@DrShajulIslam)
These people are being hunted by their own leader, perhaps because they are Sunni and he is Alawite, perhaps because they have challenged his authority and from a cultural standpoint he cannot tolerate a challenge to his rule.
The reason doesn’t matter.
For more than seven years, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been allowed to carry on a wholesale slaughter against the civilians of his own country, murdering also anyone who has tried to stop him. Hundreds of thousands have been wounded, maimed and traumatized. More than half a million Syrians have died and millions have been made homeless within their own country. Millions more have been forced to flee their homeland, perhaps forever.
If that’s not genocide, one has to ask what is.