Syrian rebels in besieged eastern Aleppo called for an immediate five-day ceasefire, negotiations about the future of the city and for medical and civilian evacuations, in a humanitarian plan published on Wednesday.
A Turkey-based rebel official told Reuters the plan had been sent to international parties which had yet to respond.
The "humanitarian initiative" document signed in the name of the Aleppo Leadership Council asked for all involved parties to discuss the future of the city once the humanitarian situation in the rebel-held sector of the divided city has been alleviated.
The document also called for the evacuation of around 500 critical medical cases from east Aleppo under United Nations supervision.
Civilians wanting to leave east Aleppo should be evacuated to the northern Aleppo countryside, rather than Idlib province.
The regime army and allied forces hold more than 75 percent of east Aleppo, a rebel bastion since 2012, three weeks into their operation to capture all of the second city.
The army has made steady gains since it began its latest bid to recapture east Aleppo.
Overnight, regime forces took control all of Aleppo's historic Old City after rebel fighters withdrew, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Fighters and civilians from rebel-held areas around Syria have often previously been transferred to rebel-held Idlib under settlement agreements reached with the Syrian army. But the document said Idlib is now too dangerous because of intense air strikes, as well as being unable to cope with more displaced persons.
The document said rebels in Aleppo will support any regional or international initiative to lighten the suffering of their people, and repeated their readiness to guarantee the safety of United Nations and humanitarian organizations wanting to carry out humanitarian operations.
The Observatory said rebels had withdrawn from the last parts of the Old City under their control overnight after the army seized the neighbouring districts of Bab al-Hadid and Aqyul.
"Rebels were forced to withdraw from the Old City neighbourhoods of Aleppo for fear of being besieged," the Britain-based monitor said.
Overnight, the army carried out heavy shelling of the Al-Zabdiya neighbourhood and other territory still under rebel control in the southeast of the city, the Observatory said.
It said at least 15 people, including a child, were killed in government fire on east Aleppo on Tuesday.
Three children were among 11 people killed by rebel fire on regime-held areas of the city. (With Agencies)
A Turkey-based rebel official told Reuters the plan had been sent to international parties which had yet to respond.
The "humanitarian initiative" document signed in the name of the Aleppo Leadership Council asked for all involved parties to discuss the future of the city once the humanitarian situation in the rebel-held sector of the divided city has been alleviated.
The document also called for the evacuation of around 500 critical medical cases from east Aleppo under United Nations supervision.
Civilians wanting to leave east Aleppo should be evacuated to the northern Aleppo countryside, rather than Idlib province.
The regime army and allied forces hold more than 75 percent of east Aleppo, a rebel bastion since 2012, three weeks into their operation to capture all of the second city.
The army has made steady gains since it began its latest bid to recapture east Aleppo.
Overnight, regime forces took control all of Aleppo's historic Old City after rebel fighters withdrew, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Fighters and civilians from rebel-held areas around Syria have often previously been transferred to rebel-held Idlib under settlement agreements reached with the Syrian army. But the document said Idlib is now too dangerous because of intense air strikes, as well as being unable to cope with more displaced persons.
The document said rebels in Aleppo will support any regional or international initiative to lighten the suffering of their people, and repeated their readiness to guarantee the safety of United Nations and humanitarian organizations wanting to carry out humanitarian operations.
The Observatory said rebels had withdrawn from the last parts of the Old City under their control overnight after the army seized the neighbouring districts of Bab al-Hadid and Aqyul.
"Rebels were forced to withdraw from the Old City neighbourhoods of Aleppo for fear of being besieged," the Britain-based monitor said.
Overnight, the army carried out heavy shelling of the Al-Zabdiya neighbourhood and other territory still under rebel control in the southeast of the city, the Observatory said.
It said at least 15 people, including a child, were killed in government fire on east Aleppo on Tuesday.
Three children were among 11 people killed by rebel fire on regime-held areas of the city. (With Agencies)
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