Aleppo, Syria, 21 December, 2016. Thousands of Syrians in the besieged part of Aleppo have been living in the street over the last three days waiting for buses to take them outside the siege, in the western countryside of Aleppo. Thousands of both civilians and rebels fighters are still waiting to leave. The evacuation process had started last week as a ceasefire was brokered by Russia and Turkey.

From the beginning, the process has been quite chaotic, with the evacuation having been resumed and halted several times. One of the reason for the delay and interruption of the process was linked to the fact that six buses sent to evacuate the sick and wounded from the two mainly Shia towns of Foah and Kefraya were stopped and set ablaze by a small group of the opposition. Finally, 750 people have been evacuated from the two towns of Foah and Kefraya in the Idlib province, through a convoy of buses. The two towns have been besieged by the rebel forces over the last three years.

While the process of evacuating civilians and rebels from Aleppo is still under way, those waiting to leave have been gathering in the streets and squares close to the crossing point. They have been suffering from lack of food, lack of water, warm clothes, medicines, any hygienic and washing facilities while being exposed to freezing temperatures. Two injured civilians have died, while a young boy has frozen to death. Many of the people waiting are having flu and colds and are at risk of developing pneumonia. A team of doctors and volunteers have been coordinating the evacuations to rebel-held Khan al-Assal, from where rebels can then travel to other rebels held areas in Aleppo or to Idlib.

Some of those people waiting for the buses have reported of harassment by some of the Iranian-backed militias in the area, and in particular the killing of four rebels (one of whom a Saudi) at the check point along the route out of eastern Aleppo. According to the information the four rebels were asked by the Shia militia to leave the bus in which they were travelling, and were then executed. Images Live would like to highlight that no independent source has verified the event.

In the besieged part of Aleppo activists and media activists have started writing on walls promising their return, praising the revolution and cursing the Syrian regime. They have also burnt cars and any goods of some value that could not be taken away.

On Tuesday morning the UN security council has agreed for a draft resolution for the UN to monitor the evacuations of those left in the besieged part of the town. UN officials and others are due to be taken to eastern Aleppo with the task to observe and monitor the evacuation and the safety of the thousands of civilians still trapped there. Those thousands of people who will be evacuated from Aleppo will be reset in camps around Aleppo and in other parts of Syria.

Our sources have reported that new alliances have been made between different opposition groups with the various opposition groups reorganising themselves and their strategies in view of the recent major defeat in Aleppo.

According to the Red Cross, since the ceasefire deal about the evacuation started a week ago, 25,000 people have been evacuated from the besieged part of Aleppo. Although the exact figure of those still stranded in the besieged part of Aleppo is not known, the UN special envoy to Syria set the figure to 40,000 civilians and 10.000 rebels.

Report: Tina Lozio/Images Live

Photographer: Basem Ayoubi/Images Live