Al-Quds Hospital, Aleppo

Al-Quds hospital is a medical facility in the opposition-held Sukkari district of Aleppo supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), that was famously reported as attacked and destroyed on April 27, 2016.

Location
There are actually two facilities of this name in the district, according to labels in Wikimapia. Al-Quds is the one in the news stories (Report with a photo showing the location but the map is roatated). A larger facility looking more like a proper hospital is labeled Al-Qods, about one kilometer south. (the Arabic is the same ( القدس = Jerusalem)
 * Sukkari district on Wikimapia, on the southwest edge of rebel-held east Aleppo

April 27 Attack
On April 27, 2016, the clinic was reportedly attacked and destroyed by a government air strike using a barrel bomb, killing dozens.


 * A statement by MSF/Doctors without Borders, who support this facility, claimed it “was destroyed by at least one airstrike which directly hit the building, reducing it to rubble.” (MSF)
 * “At least 27 people, including three children and six staff members, were reported killed in the strike on the hospital, which turned it into a smoking pile of rubble on Wednesday night” (New York Times)
 * (Washington Post)

A later report from Médecins Sans Frontières gives more detail: Review of Attack on Al Quds hospital in Aleppo City Published on 30 Sep 2016 (via ReliefWeb) "According to interviews with staff present at Al Quds hospital during the attack," there were 4 attacks in the area that night.
 * "at exactly 9.37pm, a building across from the hospital, identified as Ain Jalout school, was struck by an airstrike." * "Soon after, the Al Quds staff residence, located a few buildings down from the hospital, was hit by a second strike."
 * "Witnesses said that minutes later, a third strike assaulted the entrance of the hospital’s emergency room.
 * "five minutes later a fourth strike hit the hospital, strongly impacting the emergency room and destroying the two top floors. This second strike to the hospital cut the electricity."

It took a while to dig through the rubble, but the early death toll was too low, MSF later heard. "According to Al Quds management, as of 4 May the total death toll of the 27 April attack on Al Quds hospital was 55. The dead included 6 Al Quds staff, namely 1 pediatrician, 1 dentist, 2 nurses, 1 technician and 1 guard. Eight of the hospital staff were also seriously injured. The pediatrician and dentist killed were said to be among the last medical specialists left in East Aleppo after five years of war. Approximately 80 people were injured."

55 people is a lot to have died. The VDC only seems to list 25. All from Aleppo, Sukkari district, killed 4-27 to 5-4 by warplane shelling = 25 total: 19 dated on 4-27, 5 maybe found on 4-28, none later. One woman (listed as non-civilian, maybe in error), 3 boys, 21 men, no girls, all listed as civilian. 3 men are named Nonou, 3 are unidentified.

April Attack Questioned
On May 5, Rick Sterling of the Syria Solidarity Movement wrote an open letter to MSF about its bias, noting “the hospital photograph indicates it is not a “pile of rubble” and it’s unclear where the damage is.”

The night-time video NYT provided (credited to Yousur Al-Hlou, Aleppo Media Center) shows there's some rubble outside, piled against the arched front door, which is intact. At least two bodies are apparently found under rubble, but it's too dark to see much else. At 1:52 some heavy damage is seen inside near the front door, but further in is all intact, and the electric lights are all on. (NYT) Below: the inside of the main doorway and the area to the right of that - this is the only interior damage seen) For good measure, here's the main door as seen from outside.

A daylight photo like Sterling looked at (right) shows a damaged vehicle, evidencing perhaps a blast from the right of the camera - fresh sandbags are placed against the outer walls and on ledges – possibly damaged, but intact enough to stack sandbags against and on, and no serious damage to the bricks can be seen seen at the exposed edges.

Could the story be entirely false? Consider the man seen at right, from the NYT video, claiming his family died. He seems to start laughing at his own extreme acting at the end, unable to wipe off the smile before the next video edit. There's a fine line between a smile and a grimace of pain, but he may be on the wrong side of it. This can't be proven either way, but the reader can make their own call.

It may or may not be the same Al-Quds hospital “reduced to rubble” in April that was treating victims of an alleged government chlorine attack in August (see Alleged Chemical Attack, August 10, 2016) and doing the same on September 6. Either way, reports of its total destruction were apparently exaggerated.

Standing After Re-Conquest
Ten months after the alleged April destruction, al-Quds hospital was still standing in February, 2017, after the government's complete re-conquest of eastern Aleppo. Duth journalist Sander van Hoorn went and saw it.
 * Sander in de puinhopen van Syrië: de waarheid zal je hier niet horen Sander van Hoorn, nos.nl, February 21, 2017 (Google auto-translated with attempted improvements)
 * I was expecting in eastern Aleppo to see a ghost town after the reconquest by the Syrian army. The destruction is enormous, yet walk again open over again and people go shops. ...
 * We stop in a place where no stone was in place. People have to clamber over piles of debris to reach a UN well or a place where the Russians distributes bread. This is also the site of Al Quds hospital. Just last week, a report from an American think tank showed with a convincing reconstruction how it was to directly bombed several times .
 * (note: this may refer to a recent MSF report on a different facility they claim was attacked in Idlib, in February. See ACLOS-related analysis here.
 * If you stand, you see that it is one of the few buildings in the area that is relatively unscathed. Houses all around - collapsed upper floors, washed away facades, living rooms which are half visible - were hit. But the hospital was not.
 * Also inside you can not see the damage that you would expect from a direct attack. What we saw on the images from the cameras in the hospital, were likely attacks to nearby targets. It does not make it less terrible and the hospital there became unusable. But a direct hit at this hospital did not happen, in my opinion.

Included photo: the hospital looks about the same as it did in April, but there's new, moderate damage to the upper walls and windows, most sandbags and tarps have fallen down, and the entrance might be more damaged (the decorative top might be gone, and the area more heavily shored up with fresh sandbags)

Aleppo Doctor's Report
ACLOS adds a report from one of the many doctors still in Aleppo (and now able to threat patients in entire city), after a visit to the area in recent days. Asking for anonymity, the "Aleppo doctor" provided an account and several photos and videos to activists, who have shared them with ACLOS. These will be at least partially uploaded and shared here.

The account, with some notes added:
 * I went Sunday February 12, 2017 visiting the Ansari-Sukari neighborhood in order to see Zarzour and Al Quds Hospitals. My guide was a young man who lived there and knows very well the area.
 * My first stop was Zarzour hospital (mentioned in MSF report) and I found out that it was burned. My guide told me that the rebels burned it the day before the evacuation (information confirmed by a high position responsible in the Syrian Red Crescent). On the side walk, I found hundreds of burned new blood bags (for collection of blood donation). A man met there invited me to visit his building just next to the hospital. His building was also burned and on the floors, I found hundreds of IV solution bags.

Zarzour Hospital burned by the rebels the day before their evacuation Thousands of burned Blood bags in Zarzour hospital


 * Then, we moved to Ain Jalout school (mentioned in the (MSF) report (see the rudimentary map drawn by me). In fact, there are 3 contiguous schools. Two are completely destroyed. One is partially. Behind the schools, there is a mosque called Abbas mosque with its minaret. Answering my surprise to see schools destroyed by air strikes, my guide told me that the mosque was one of the headquarter of the rebels and one school was an ammunition depot and the other one was a food depot. I noticed the flag of Al Nosra (Jabhat al-Nusra) painted on the external wall of the school, and dozens of buildings in the surrounding partially destroyed.

Ain Jalout school and Abbas Mosque behind it


 * Then, we moved to see Al Quds Hospital. Obviously, it is the most preserved building of the street. Obviously, it was not hit directly by bombs and probably received some fragments from bombs fallen on other building. I asked my guide if any restoration or repair were done. He said no.




 * The video that I took shows that the building of the hospital is the most intact, or the less damaged among the other buildings of the same street and obviously, the hospital did not receive a direct impact of a bomb.
 * My feeling is the following: Ain Jalout school was the target of the strikes, the surrounding destroyed buildings were collateral damage (note: hit secondarily, on accident) and Al Quds hospital was not directly hit by strikes. I don’t agree with MSF conclusion that it was deliberate targeted.


 * ...(more forthcoming)...

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 * Independent Doctors Association

Video

 * Aleppo hospital attack: CCTV footage shows Al Quds air strike in Syria - Channel 4 News, April 30, 2016
 * ALQUDS - Free Aleppo Doctors' Association, FADA

Photos

 * ‘SELFISH, INHUMAN’ Russia savaged by British UN official in explosive outburst - Sunday Express, October 27, 2016
 * Babies in incubators driven to safety through Syrian air strikes - Daily Mail, November 18, 2016
 * Same place. Same children?