(Previous Incident Codes: R682RS769)

In a major incident, multiple local sources reported that up to 58 civilians died and between 40 and 90 were injured in airstrikes on the MSF Al Quds hospital in Sukkari. Medical staff were among the casualties. Most reports alleged that Russia was responsible, though the White Helmets pointed towards the regime.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights initially blamed the regime and said that eight civilians died. However, a subsequent SN4HR brief said that “suspected” Russian warplanes were responsible, and put the death toll higher at 25, including eight children and one woman. A further report said that Russia launched two missiles on “on Al Qudus Field Hospital in Al Sukari neighborhood in Aleppo city, causing a massacre and damaging the hospital rendering it inoperable.”

Eyewitness Mujahed Abu Al Joud, a local media activist, told SN4HR: “I headed to the site of the bombing of a AlQuds hospital after approximately 10 minutes of bombardment. The front façade of the hospital is totally destroyed as well as the entrance of the ambulances. Up on this bombardment, I lost my friend doctor Abu Abdul Rahman. There was a targeting of the street located behind the building of the hospital after 5 minutes of being bombed. I saw two completely destroyed buildings, and 6 partially destroyed ones. The Civil Defense teams prevent us from straying in place due to the fear of the repetition of the bombardment because the warplanes had not left the place. The corpse was found under the rubble and the rescue teams tried to save what can be saved, I heard a girl yelling and crying as the corpse of her family are under the rubble.” In total, SN4HR documented 36 deaths including 14 children and eight women, two doctors, a nurse, and two of the medical cadres.

According to Shaam News Network, “At least ten civilians and members of the medical staff, including the only pediatrician in Aleppo were killed by Russian aerial bombing on al Quds hospital in the neighborhood of al Sukkari in Aleppo. Russian aircraft carried out several raids targeting areas in the neighborhood as well as AlQuds hospital where many of the wounded fell along with the martyrs.” A later report by SNN put the death toll still higher, at 30, adding that the whole hospital was destroyed.

The White Helmets said that three consecutive raids on the hospital had left “dozens of dead and injured including doctors and medical staff“, though they did not say who was to blame.

A later statement said that as many as 50 had died with more than 80 injured – most of them women and children. They published a distressing video showing a living baby being removed from the rubble after 24 hours of constant work. In a further report, the White Helmets suggested that strikes on this day were conducted by the regime, adding that the death toll had now spiraled to 53 with more than 90 wounded.

A report by ABC News included a video of a statement by The White House condemning the attack. It said: “At least three children and six medical staff were among the 27 killed after overnight airstrikes hit a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders in the Syrian city of Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The city’s last pediatrician was among the dead, the group said.” It continued: “The Syrian military said it did not target the hospital, but the building was destroyed by at least one strike, according to hospital staff on the ground with the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders”.

On April 28th, the Russian Ministry of Defence refuted claims that it had carried out the strikes: “Within last days, Russian Aerospace Forces have performed no flights near Aleppo.” The Violations Documentation Center named 19 victims, including three children, killed in “regime shelling”. Besides from the identified victims, the VDC also reported about another three unidentified adult male victims (here, here and here)