What Is Happening In Aleppo? Evacuation Of Last Few Syrians In City Delayed, Israel May Expand Medical Aid To Aleppo

Buses meant to evacuate the last few people in the war-torn Syrian city of Aleppo have been delayed for nearly 24 hours, activists said Wednesday. Turkey and international aid officials had said Tuesday evacuation proceedings are likely to end Wednesday.

U.K. based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 60 buses carrying nearly 3,000 people were waiting to leave eastern Aleppo on Wednesday. A spokesman for Aleppo’s Fastaqim rebel group said fighters “won’t leave until security of all the civilians has been fully guaranteed.”

The monitoring group added that 21 buses were waiting at the rebel-held Shiite villages of Foua and Kfarya, also part of the ceasefire deal brokered by Turkey and Russia last week.

As of Tuesday, the United Nations had not dispatched observers to Aleppo to keep track of the evacuations, as mandated by the U.N. Security Council. U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said negotiations about access for U.N. monitors were still underway with the different parties involved in the Syrian war, which is fast approaching its sixth year.

“The issue of access continues to be a challenge. We are not where we want to be,” Dujarric reportedly said, adding that an estimated 25,000 people have been evacuated since the ceasefire came into existence on Dec. 15.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday officials hoped to finish evacuations by Wednesday.

Aleppo, once Syria’s industrial and financial center, became an important battleground in 2012 when rebel forces launched an attack on the government. Syria’s largest city was divided into two parts, with the eastern portion under rebel control and the west falling under President Bashar Assad’s regime.

In 2016, pro-government forces backed by Russian airstrikes launched an offensive to retake the entire city. Besieged eastern Aleppo was continuously bombarded with airstrikes that destroyed most of its hospitals and prevented the delivery of humanitarian aid while its civilians were trapped with dwindling food, water and medical supplies.

The Assad government succeeded in regaining control of the city last week with the Syrian president describing the recapture as a milestone in the conflict.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered his government to “find ways” to bring injured Syrians from Aleppo to Israeli hospitals.

“We see the tragedy of terrible suffering of civilians and I’ve asked the Foreign Ministry to seek ways to expand our medical assistance to the civilian casualties of the Syrian tragedy, specifically in Aleppo,” Netanyahu reportedly said Tuesday. “It’s being explored as we speak.”

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced since the conflict, which began as a peaceful protest part of the Arab Spring movement, spiraled into a civil war.