Last Saturday, with 300,000 people trapped in rebel-held eastern Aleppo and food supplies expected to run out in August, Syrian state media reported that ‘buses with dozens of families had left eastern areas along a humanitarian corridor’. On Sunday night a campaign was launched on the eve of the 71st anniversary of the founding of the Syrian army. By Monday, Aleppo’s rebel fighters had launched their military operation aimed at breaking the weeks-long regime siege of the opposition-controlled eastern part of the city. The civilians’ plight, caught in the middle of all this, has led to growing international alarm. Civilians are surrounded by brutal aerial bombing campaigns from Bashar al-Assad and his Russian allies. Even chemical bombs have allegedly been used. The last hospitals in the area have been destroyed. They need prayer now more than ever. This battle is an urgent humanitarian catastrophe which could end all hope of a negotiated peace