We’d hide against the far wall under a piece of door,” said Aboud, an elderly man who stayed in Eastern Aleppo throughout. “You’d see the barrel bombs falling. The fire and dust from the explosion would come in through the door.
He lived there with his infirm wife, his son Mahmoud and daughter-in-law Manar and his grandchildren Aboud and Khawla. “We could never escape from here, my wife can’t walk. Besides, where would we have gone.”
At a recently opened centre in Eastern Aleppo, Caritas distributes blankets, hygiene items and nappies.
One year old Khawla was born into this inferno. All the hospitals were destroyed, but there was a medic operating out of an apartment. “We had to get through the bombing. It was terrifying. The doctor helped my wife give birth. There were no painkillers. She suffered greatly,” said Mahmoud.
The neighbourhood was controlled by the Al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate. Hunger and harassment reigned. Their fighters would hand out a few pieces of bread a day. Aboud would cross the frontline to bring back food and medicine. Being caught could have meant death. The seventy year old was lucky. Others were not.
Saba found the beaten body of her husband in a car. Ibrahim lost his son. “They cut off his head. They beat me too. One of them took out a knife, put it to my neck and shouted Allahu Akbar,” he said. When he opened his eyes, they had disappeared, having stolen his van.