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Arab social media users express anger over 'silence' on Aleppo

Arabic hashtag ‘Aleppo is being exterminated by the silence of Arabs and the rest of the world’ has been trending on Twitter
A member of the Syrian government forces looks at a damaged mosque in Aleppo's newly captured Al-Kalasseh neighbourhood on 13 December (AFP)

As the Syrian army and pro-Assad milita forces continued their assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo, observers in the Arab world have taken to Twitter to express their anger at world leaders over what they perceive as international inaction to halt the onslaught.

Reiterating denunciations from within east Aleppo that Arab countries and the rest of the world has abandoned them, ‘Aleppo is being exterminated by the silence of Arabs and the rest of the world’, was a trending Arabic hashtag on Tuesday worldwide. 

People callled on the international community to recognise the grave situation unfolding in Aleppo, where at least 100,000 people are trapped in an area about two square kilometres in size with bombs raining down on trapped civilians, according to a press statement released by the Independent Doctors Association.

The UN reported on Tuesday that Syrian government troops and allied militia fighters killed civilians in eastern Aleppo, including 82 people who were shot on the spot in four different neighbourhoods.

Meanwhile, civilians within one of the few remaining rebel-held neighbourhoods in beseiged east Aleppo tweeted out their final goodbyes and messages, amid a deteriorating humanitarian situation, described earlier on Tuesday as a "meltdown of humanity" by UN human rights chief Rupert Colville.

People's condemnations over social media were specifically targeted towards the Arab and Muslim communities around the world. 

https://twitter.com/majed_ba15/status/808598109374869508

Translation: Muslims around the world, and Arabs in specific... you cannot claim to be religious, believers, honourable or dignified. 

https://twitter.com/iatemuggles/status/808644224447025152
https://twitter.com/ahdforce/status/808580103789826048

Translation: Arabs have chosen silence from very long ago. This is not new. 

A United Nations source speaking to Middle East Eye on condition of anonymity said on Tuesday that it stood ready to evacuate 100,000 people from besieged rebel-held territory in eastern Aleppo if a 24-hour ceasefire is put in place.

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