25 confirmed attacks on healthcare in north-west Syria since April 28

Amid deadly violence in opposition-held Idlib province, where a Government-led military operation escalated in late April, OCHA said that the hostilities had left “at least 160 civilians confirmed dead”, and hundreds more injured.

“Airstrikes, artillery shelling and barrel bombs” are responsible for “near-daily” attacks on civilians, hospitals and schools in north-west Syria, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.

Amid deadly violence in opposition-held Idlib province, where a Government-led military operation escalated in late April, OCHA said that the hostilities had left “at least 160 civilians confirmed dead”, and hundreds more injured.

Since 28 April, there have been 25 confirmed attacks on healthcare in the north-west, including on 24 health facilities and one ambulance, spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists in Geneva: “We are seeing a military escalation, absolutely, no doubt about that. Now, after eight years of war in Syria, I think every time that we kind of reach the limit of the language that we have, we speak about disasters, catastrophes, ‘this is the end’, ‘meltdown of humanity’ – I recall many of these words having been used here – we see something even worse.”

Some three million people in Idlib need protection, according to OCHA, which has warned that “education is also under attack”, with 36 reports on attacks on schools in the north-west by the end of last month.