– According to the UN, Syria’s economy has shrunk by 40 percent and over 13 million people inside the country, including six million children, need humanitarian aid.
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However, that appeared to die down, and the Observatory said it had not recorded a single civilian death from fighting in the fifteen hours since the ceasefire came into effect.
– Syria’s five-year war has created what the International Committee of the Red Cross calls “the largest and most complex humanitarian crisis in the world”.
The trucks carrying United Nations humanitarian supplies crossed on Tuesday into Aleppo province through the Cilvegozu border gate in the southern Turkish province of Hatay, state-run Anadolu news agency said, citing security sources. A Turkish official said they were mostly carrying food and flour.
The foreign ministry said: “Commenting on the statement issued by the Turkish regime on its intention to send what it says is humanitarian aid into Aleppo, the Syrian Arab Republic announces its rejection of the entry of any humanitarian aid to Aleppo, particularly from the Turkish regime, without coordination with the Syrian government and the United Nations”.
– The UN said Tuesday it had prepared help for civilians during Syria’s ceasefire but aid convoys would not be delivered until security was assured.
Jens Laerke, deputy spokesman for the UN humanitarian office, said the United Nations called on all parties to respect the cessation of hostilities “to enable unimpeded, unconditional and sustained access without delay”.
The second of two major holidays in Islam, Eid al-Adha coincides with a fragile peace brought on by a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States and Russian Federation.
The United States and Russian Federation previously coordinated a partial ceasefire in February.
Syrian state media said armed groups had violated the truce in a number of locations in Aleppo city and in the west Homs countryside on at least seven occasions on Tuesday.
“Many children are killed in this war when residential neighborhoods are attacked and they are at home or playing in the street”, said Mohammad, a surgeon in Aleppo who treated Omran and asked ABC News not to publish his last name due to safety concerns.
The council wanted a role in overseeing the deliveries, he added, rejecting any presence of government forces on the road expected to be used to make the deliveries. It denied a Syrian claim that a warplane and drone were shot down.
Both the government and opposition groups reported sporadic incidents in the first few hours after the ceasefire took hold at sundown (11.45 a.m. ET) Monday.
If the truce holds, Russian Federation and the U.S. will open a joint operations room within seven days, to map out areas that remain valid targets. But human rights groups monitoring the situation reported airstrikes in the Aleppo region and near Raqqa, ISIS’ de facto capital, just days after the truce took effect.
The Syrian president made his defiant remarks Monday during a symbolic visit to the former rebel stronghold of Daraya, a now-devastated Damascus suburb.
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Fighting had raged on several key fronts before the truce, including Aleppo and the southern province of Quneitra on Monday, the first day of the Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday.
