Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
I would like to thank the Canadian Parliament for giving me the opportunity to give testimony on the tragic situation in Aleppo with the humanitarian crisis going on.
I would like to reiterate my thanks to everybody for having given me this opportunity to give the testimony on the tragic situation in Aleppo in particular, and in Syria in general.
I am the head of the Syria Civil Defence, known as the White Helmets. We are a group of volunteers who work together. Our main task is to respond with first aid where there are air strikes against the civilian places.
In Aleppo, recently the aid convoy of the United Nations was a target of offence by the military air forces. Aleppo is indeed going through a tragic situation. In seven days we have had more than a thousand air strikes, out of which 19 used bombs that fell on shelters, and there were almost 800 air strikes using various weapons.
Such air strikes have happened regularly, and I will give you some figures regarding the places that were targeted in Aleppo. There were three centres of the Syria Civil Defence, seven operations, and 12 vehicles were damaged totally and 12 people were injured. In addition, there were nine attacks against our forces. The main roads in Aleppo were targeted more than 12 times. An electric station was targeted as well. In addition to three warehouses that had food and supplies, four hospitals were destroyed, and 413 houses of civilians were also attacked. Small weapons were used 16 times. Sixty explosive barrels were used, and 66 fires happened as a result. The city was bombarded as well four times by land-to-land missiles, and 24 cluster bombs were used.
During the past month, 460 persons died. Eight hundred were injured, 200 of whom required immediate medical care. We succeeded in transporting some of them but not all because it was indeed so difficult for us to transport the seriously injured, the persons from Aleppo. So far 209 children and 210 women have died, and 324 women and men have been injured. All these statistics have been gathered regarding the city of Aleppo only since the humanitarian pause came to an end.
I have been talking about the city of Aleppo only. If I turn to the general situation in Syria, Douma city in eastern Ghouta was also attacked by air strikes leading to the injury and the deaths of many people. Other cities as well were attacked. All the equipment was totally destroyed. In Idlib as well, more than 100 people lost their lives. Many people were injured, women and children.
Three days ago, there was terrible bloodshed in a school. There was a terrible massacre that led to the loss of the lives of children and teachers. Chlorine gas was claimed to have been used in Ar Rashidiya and Al Zibdia in Aleppo. Cluster bombs were claimed to have been used, and these bombs are banned internationally. These were used in the southern part of Aleppo, and another city, and around the city of Ariha. This is a brief description of the situation, and these are just statistics that would give you an idea about how civilians live in Aleppo under continuous air strikes.
If we want to speak about the city of Aleppo in general, today in this city, since the siege by the Syrian army forces and the supporting militias, the price of fuel has become very high, and food supplies as well have become expensive. There is such a shortage of required medical materials that we cannot even take care of more injured people.
A new type of bomb that has recently been used 19 times in the city of Aleppo leads to devastating destruction of buildings and the fall and collapse of many other buildings around the centre of the explosion 15 minutes after the attack. The air strikes are extremely intensive.
This is a summary of the situation and a summary of the tragedy that the people in Aleppo are living through.
I take this opportunity to thank the Canadian government and the people of Canada for hosting thousands of Syrian refugees so that they can live in peace and in security in Canada.
I am ready to answer any questions that members of the House of Commons may have. Also, if you have an official email address, we can send reports to this address so that we can describe the situation in Aleppo on a daily basis, tragedies every day, as a result of the air strikes on civilian centres and civilian communities.
Thank you.