The Social Media Messages Coming Out of Aleppo Are Absolutely Heartbreaking

Social media makes the world a smaller place. A frustrated tweet from Santa Barbara can reach the sympathetic ear of a café along the Seine. A wedding proposal can be posted so family from the States can see that picture-perfect (and totally candid) pose in front of the Eiffel. A simple tweet can make the world can rejoice together—and a simple tweet can cause the world to mourn. This week, we have the opportunity to see the war in Syria through the Tweets of those on the ground in Aleppo.

On Tuesday, NPR reporter Alice Fordham reported that a deal had been reached for a ceasefire, and that rebels and civilians would be able to evacuate their last holdout.

But early Wednesday morning, Osama Abu Zayd, the legal counsel to Syrian opposition factions, told the Associated Press that Iran’s field commander in Syria was resisting the original evacuation plan outlined just a day before.

Aref Al-Aref, a medic inside eastern Aleppo, told CNN, “People were hopeful that they were leaving this hell.  But it was a false hope.”

“The artillery shells are still falling at an average of two shells a minute,” said an AMC activist.    

During a BBC interview with Victoria Derbyshire, explosions are heard just outside the building of the reporter, who said his “building could be bombed at any time.”

But the rawest and most powerful source for news about Syria wasn't traditional news outlets. It's those surviving in the midst of the chaos. To get the real, horrific pulse of what's happening in Aleppo, we can turn to first-person reports on Twitter.

“We are facing one of the most difficult...or the most horrible massacres that is in that new history,” says Mr. Alhamdo, a teacher and activist, reporting live from inside Aleppo.

Early Wednesday morning, Mr. Alhamdo updated his feed with this message:

Later, Zouhir Al Shimale, a freelance journalist in Aleppo, captured the remnants of a phosphoric shrapnel he found on his walk through the city’s streets.

Al Shimale continued to report:

Some people are tweeting to report the horrors. Others, like Lina Shamy, tweet to support the Syrian revolutionaries. “The revolutionaries will fight until the last breath, protecting the civilians here in the city,” Shamy said in a Twitter video.

A member of the Syrian civil defense team, The White Helmets, tweeted a video saying, “The whole world let us down...those who didn’t stay in Aleppo city to help our people, to help our kids.”

Kids like Bana Alabed refuse to let the rest of the world forget that there are innocent children suffering in Syria.

Many tweeters outside Aleppo have expressed their sympathies, rallying demonstrations across the globe. It reads as a twisted irony that this global sympathy and outrage has yet to touch those closest to the victims in eastern Aleppo.

All from a simple tweet. If you want to help, here's a list of reputable organizations that are taking donations.