Warplanes pounded the last rebel enclave near Syria’s capital for a fifth day running on Thursday as the U.N. Security Council considered demanding a 30-day truce across the country to allow emergency aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
The U.N. envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, pleaded for a ceasefire to halt one of the fiercest air assaults of the seven-year civil war and prevent a “massacre” in the besieged eastern Ghouta region on the outskirts of Damascus.
At least 403 people have been killed in eastern Ghouta district since Sunday night, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor, with more than 2,116 wounded from the assault by Syria’s military and its allies.
Planes have struck residential areas in the enclave of 400,000 people and, said medical charities, hit more than a dozen hospitals, making it near impossible to treat the wounded.
Panos Moumtzis, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Syria, said households in eastern Ghouta were without food, water or electricity in winter cold and 80 percent of the population of the town of Harasta was living underground.
“There is a need for avoiding a massacre, because we will be judged by history,” Mistura said, urging the 15-member Security Council to act. The Council was meeting on Thursday to discussion the situation at the request of Russia.
President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally Russia, which wields a veto on the Security Council, said it could support a 30-day truce, but not one that included the Islamist militants it says the onslaught on eastern Ghouta is meant to target.
The Council was considering a resolution, drafted by Kuwait and Sweden, that demands “a cessation of hostilities throughout Syria for all military operations except those directed at the Islamic State … Al Qaeda and Al-Nusra Front” for 30 days to allow aid deliveries and medical evacuations.
Swedish U.N. Ambassador Olof Skoog said he hoped the Council could vote on the resolution on Thursday. But Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said he would propose amendments to the text.
A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, France or Britain to pass.
“The idea with the Security Council resolution is first and foremost stop the bombing and let aid get in … The Russians can step up, will they?” a U.S. official told Reuters.
Residents of Douma, the biggest town in eastern Ghouta, described plumes of black smoke billowing from residential areas after planes dropped bombs from high altitude.
Searches were under way for bodies amid the rubble in the town of Saqba and elsewhere, said rescuers.
Sara Kayyali, Syria researcher for Human Rights Watch, said the situation in eastern Ghouta was deteriorating ”at an exponential rate“ with over 250 civilians dead in the last 48 hours. ”Witnesses that we are speaking to on the ground are saying that it’s ‘raining bombs’,” she told Reuters in Geneva.
Robert Mardini, Middle East regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the ICRC was poised to offer emergency medical care in the enclave and carry out evacuations of wounded as soon as conditions permitted.
“We need to get clearance and acceptance by all sides to carry out our work. We have a convoy ready to be sent to eastern Ghouta …as soon as there is reduction in the intensity of the fighting,” he told Reuters at a media briefing in Beirut.
In Syria’s north, where Turkey launched an offensive in the past month against a Kurdish militia, the Kurds said pro-government fighters were now deploying to front lines to help repel the Turkish advance, though assistance would be needed from the Syrian army itself.
