The United Nations said, Thursday, it hopes to carry out the first medical evacuations from eastern Aleppo on Friday, after it got clearance from all warring parties in the devastated Syrian city, according to Agence France Presse. "We believe we now have all of the green lights that we need," the head of the UN's humanitarian taskforce for Syria, Jan Egeland, told journalists in Geneva, as a humanitarian pause in rebel-controlled east Aleppo broadly held.
Light arms and artillery exchanges erupted around a crossing point near the rebel-controlled Bustan al-Qasr district shortly after the pause began, Thursday morning. During the day, Syrian soldiers used loudspeakers to call on residents to "seize the chance" to evacuate.