On 8 January 2026, the Khaled Fajr Hospital went out of service in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, which has a predominantly Kurdish population, north of the city of Aleppo, following its exposure to repeated shelling.
Video footage recorded on 8 January 2026 showed the Khaled Fajr Hospital being subjected to repeated shelling, leading to its complete shutdown and inability to provide medical services. According to local sources, the shelling came as part of violent attacks launched by the forces of the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” on the Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyah neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo.
The intense shelling that struck the two neighborhoods resulted in deaths and injuries, and it is noted that the residents of both neighborhoods largely belong to the Kurdish component.
A healthcare worker in the Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyah neighborhoods confirmed that the ongoing indiscriminate shelling has significantly hindered the ability of medical facilities to provide the necessary services to the wounded and injured. He also pointed out that the health sector in the two neighborhoods suffers from a severe shortage of medicines and medical supplies as a result of the siege imposed on them, which has exacerbated the impact of the shelling on the overall health situation.
According to information received from local sources, the forces of the interim authority “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” carried out the shelling operations that targeted residential neighborhoods and medical facilities in the area.
The Kurdish neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo, particularly Sheikh Maqsoud and al-Ashrafiyah, have been witnessing a military escalation since Tuesday, 6 January 2026, manifested in intense and continuous shelling. The pace of shelling escalated on the morning of Thursday, 8 January 2026, coinciding with the interim authority’s forces publishing maps showing residential locations in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood that were designated as targets for shelling, under the pretext that shelling operations were launched from them against the neighborhoods of the city of Aleppo and its residents by the “Syrian Democratic Forces.”
