At least 141 civilians, including 18 children, have been killed in a week of renewed bombardment on the rebel-held eastern half of Aleppo which has devastated its hospitals, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.
The Britain-based war monitor said it had documented hundreds of injuries as a result of Russian and Syrian air strikes and shelling by government forces and its allies on the besieged eastern half of the divided city.
The assault began last Tuesday after a weeks-long pause in air strikes and shelling inside east Aleppo, although battles and air strikes did continue along the city's front lines and in the surrounding countryside.
The monitor said there were another 87 deaths of rebel fighters and people of unknown identity in the eastern sector.
The Observatory also documented 16 civilian deaths, including 10 children, and dozens of injuries as a result of rebel shelling of government-held west Aleppo.
Air strikes and shelling of east Aleppo last week knocked all the main hospitals in that part of the city out of service, the local health authority and international humanitarian agencies said.
The Syrian army on Tuesday accused rebels in besieged east Aleppo of possessing food stores and told them to distribute rations to alleviate shortages, one week into renewed air strikes and bombardment of the area.
The existence of such food stores could not be verified.
On Nov. 10 the United Nations said aid workers were distributing the last available food rations in east Aleppo. The UN has not been able to access east Aleppo since early July.
Around 250,000 people in Aleppo's opposition-controlled eastern neighborhoods have been under effective siege since the army, aided by Iranian-backed militias and Russian jets, cut off the last road into rebel districts in early July.
In another statement, the army told rebels to clear mines from crossings into the government-held western sector designated by the Syrian and Russian militaries as humanitarian corridors, and to let civilians who want to leave do so.
The siege and intense bombardment of east Aleppo have created a dire humanitarian crisis, aggravated by frequent air strikes on hospitals. Medicines, food and fuel are severely depleted.
The Syrian government has said rebels are stopping residents from leaving. Rebel groups and residents of east Aleppo say people are scared to use the corridors for fear of snipers, bombs or arrest.
Many are also worried that if they leave they will never be allowed to return and instead want aid to be allowed in.