Meanwhile, Israel bombed Aleppo and Neirab, leaving the Syrians trapped between two forces raining fire from the sky.

Idlib, Syria – Two civilians, including a child, were killed and 16 others, including four children, were injured in an artillery attack by Syrian regime troops on a popular market in the center of Idlib city on Saturday evening, according to the Syrian Civil Defense.

“We admitted two martyrs and 14 injured people, including two critical cases, to the hospital, and they are now in the operating room,” said Ismail al-Hassan, the head of the emergency room at Idlib University Hospital.

Al-Hassan told Al Jazeera that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has recently intensified its attacks on the area, requiring constant readiness to respond to any casualties in the event of a bombardment in the city or its surroundings.

“For almost 13 years, we have been working to rescue civilian victims who fell victim to the Assad regime and Russia,” al-Hassan said. The Syrian Civil Defense, also known as the White Helmets, said a child was injured by artillery fire on the town of Atarib in western Aleppo earlier Saturday.

“The timing and location of today’s attack in Idlib suggests that its aim is to kill the largest number of civilians,” said Ahmed Yazji, board member of the Syrian Civil Defense. Yazj told Al Jazeera that the Syrian regime and Russia’s attacks on the Idlib region are always aimed at targeting vital centers, schools and hospitals with the intention of killing civilians.

“From the beginning of 2023 to today, we have documented more than 1,200 attacks by the Assad regime Russia on the northwestern region of Syria, including 27 attacks on schools and 16 attacks on refugee camps,” he said. “The attacks on the region by the Assad regime and Russia can only be described as terrorist attacks aimed at undermining stability in the region.”

Idlib province, the last stronghold controlled by Syrian opposition fighters, is considered the most densely populated area in northwest Syria and is home to 4.5 million people, including 1.9 million, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Camps for internally displaced people).

“In a matter of moments, the market turned into a pool of blood and thick dust,” said Abdullah Aloush, a displaced person from Khan Shaykhun and the owner of a nearby shop in the targeted area of ​​Idlib city. Aloush told Al Jazeera that the market was targeted at a time when it was full of civilians. “Initially, I and my companions in the store were helpless and didn’t know what to do before we went out to check on our neighbors and help the injured.”

Israeli fighter jets were in action the previous Saturday Air strikes on Aleppo and Neirab airports, as well as several Syrian regime points south of Aleppo. The Israeli airstrikes targeted farms between the villages of Zahabiya and Sheikh Saeed in the Neirab military airport area, which housed warehouses and headquarters of Iranian militias. According to the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a rocket also struck in the area of ​​Aleppo international airport and Neirab military airport.

“As usual, the Assad regime, unable to respond to Israeli attacks on its sites, has targeted civilians in northwestern Syria,” said Mohammed al-Saleh, 34, the owner of a cafe down the street Idlib, which was bombed.

Al-Saleh, who was about 15 m (50 feet) away from the bombing, warned everyone in the cafe not to leave the place for fear of a repeat of the bombing in the area and to avoid new victims. “In these moments, our feeling can only be described as being in the embrace of death,” Al-Saleh said. “These days, people around the world are preparing to celebrate the beginning of one New YearWe in Idlib are preparing to bury our friends and family who were killed today.”