An ambulance leaves and another carrying many wounded people arrives. Its doors are quickly opened so that the injured can be taken into the hospital. The injured struggle to catch their breaths and blood covers their bodies and what remains of their torn clothes.

This scene repeats itself around the clock in front of the M10 Hospital in the city of Aleppo where bombing carried out by the Russians and the Syrian regime on the city’s neighbourhoods has not stopped for months. In operating rooms underground, doctors and nurses are engrossed in performing surgical procedures on the wounded and definitely have no time to conduct an interview.

We waited for a long time until we could speak to a medical assistant. Ahmed Abu Ali takes the gloves off his hands and removes the mask from his face; this is his break after working continuously for hours.

Workers in the medical sector here are forced to work long hours, and they usually work for up to three months without taking leave or a holiday. This is because the sector suffers from a serious shortage of medical personnel in this part of Aleppo that is under the control of the opposition. Ahmed Abu Ali told Asharq Al-Awsat that “There is an acute shortage of medical specialists. For example, there is only one doctor who specialises in blood vessels and so he is forced to move from one hospital to another in order to conduct operations. In the absence of this doctor, the injured may have to have their limbs amputated.”