A team from FRANCE 24 visited a hospital in Syria’s Idlib province shortly before a ceasefire was set to go into effect. They speak with some of those who were injured in the recent offensive and whose homes were destroyed.
The Syrian government’s unilateral ceasefire appeared to be holding on Saturday morning, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, bringing calm to the northwestern province of Idlib, which had been subjected to a crushing offensive by Russian and Syrian forces since April 30.
The bombardments were followed by a ground offensive by government forces, launched in early August, in an attempt to retake the jihadist stronghold. Some 860 people have been killed, and tens of thousands injured.
Hospitals have been overrun with patients.
“We had 15,000 to 16,000 patients a month, but now we have up to 25,000 because of the displacements,” Alaa al-Mahrouq, a nurse at the Atma Charity Hospital, told FRANCE 24.
