The UN said the attacks on Aleppo had left almost two million people without water.
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For days, videos and photographs from eastern Aleppo have shown flattened buildings and paramedics pulling bodies from the rubble.
On Saturday, large bombs left craters in roads, destroyed buildings and buried residents in rubble.
Secretary-General Ban warned yesterday that the use of bunker buster bombs and other advanced munitions against civilians may amount to war crimes, after the army Thursday launched the offensive backed by Russian air raids that has cost around 100 lives.
Aleppo has recently come under intense attacks by regime and Russian forces, with the latest attacks on Saturday killing over 90, and injuring more than 270 civilians.
Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday called the situation in Aleppo “unacceptable”.
“If people are serious about wanting a peaceful outcome to this war, then they should cease and desist bombing innocent women and children, cease cutting off water and laying siege in medieval terms to an entire community”, he said.
Western nations have been “too impotent” in the face of the deepening Syrian crisis, said Boris Johnson as he urged for tougher action against Russian Federation.
Damascus and its allies including Shi’ite militia from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon have encircled rebel-held areas of Aleppo gradually this year, achieving their long-held objective of fully besieging the area this summer with Russian air support.
An unnamed Syrian military official was quoted by state media on Friday as saying that airstrikes and shelling in Aleppo would continue for an extended period and “include a ground offensive” into rebel-held areas. The camp, which is nearly empty and largely destroyed, has seen intense fighting and bombardment in recent years, and changed hands multiple times.
The war has ground on for almost six years, with all diplomatic efforts collapsing in failure.
But Russia’s apparent decision to abandon the peace process this week could reflect a change in that calculus and a view that victory is in reach, at least in the western cities where the overwhelming majority of Syrians live.
Outside Aleppo, anti-Assad fighters have been driven mostly into rural areas.
That same day, an aid convoy was hit by an air strike that USA officials have said was carried out by Russian planes, although Moscow has denied responsibility.
A Syrian army source told state media this week that the air assault will be “comprehensive” and “will last for some time”, followed up by a ground offensive created to oust rebel groups for good.
Living conditions in the already-battered eastern districts have meanwhile grown even worse.
The U.N.’s children’s agency, said in a statement that a key water pumping station supplying people in the city’s east was damaged in airstrikes, and continuing violence is preventing crews from repairing it.
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The Syrian military’s bombardment damaged a water pumping station and then rebels shut down another in retaliation, the United Nations said.
