The toll of Syria's civil war continues to be felt most by Aleppo's children as aid workers plead for ceasefire

  • Video report by ITV News correspondent Paul Davies

A week after the picture of little Omran Daqneesh sat dazed and injured after an Aleppo airstrike shocked the world, the toll of Syria's civil war continues to be felt by its children.

Now, on the day of a meeting between the USA and Russia that is hoped to lead to peace in Syria, aid workers have warned that there has not been a more dangerous time for Syria's children in the five years since war began.

ITV News has been compiling as accurate a picture as possible the dreadful impact on a new generation of Aleppo citizens.

In the week since Omran's picture hit the headlines last Thursday, 25 more children have died in the hospital he was treated in, including his brother.

More children have been killed in Aleppo so far this year than the whole of 2015.

Dr Mohammed, who treated Omran, said in that time 127 more children have come into the emergency room with injuries.

He says that his hospital treats a third of the total number injured in Eastern Aleppo.

Just some of the names of children who died in July Credit: ITV News

ITV News was given exclusive access to the basement of Aleppo's only children's hospital where the premature baby unit was moved after the building was hit by bombs.

The infants are now being cared for in sweltering conditions.

Every day is 'sad and dangerous' for children in Aleppo, Save the Children said. Credit: Live Updates from Syria

Save the Children says that every day that continues without a ceasefire costs children's lives.

Director of Save the Children, Sonia Khush said: "One week after the picture of the dazed and bloodied 5-year-old boy Omran Daqneesh shocked the world, we have yet to see any progress towards a ceasefire in Aleppo. In that week, dozens of children are estimated to have been killed in Syria and many more injured."

Devastation left after an air strike in Aleppo.

Unicef called for an "immediate pause" to fighting in Aleppo to provide humanitarian assistance, medicines, vaccines and nutritional supplies.

It is two years since the UN stopped counting casualties in Aleppo. But according to the Violations Documentation Centre in Syria, more children have died so far this year in Aleppo than the whole of 2015.

And over three times as many children have been killed this month than last year, they say, equating to about two children killed every day.

Khush said that every day is "sad and dangerous" for children in Syria who are facing the psychological impact of fear or death and injury or grief for a lost loved one.

Two boys weep when they learn of their brother's death. Credit: Aleppo Media Centre (AMC)

Even in a city under constant bombardment children will play and that is when many of them die.

Barrell bombs claimed 11 young lives on Thursday, one of them the brother of two boys filmed weeping in despair and embracing covered in dust from the destruction caused by the explosion.

For these boys, any ceasefire will come too late.

  • Watch more in our series of reports filmed by people in and around the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo.