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Posted: 2018-02-21T03:12:58Z | Updated: 2018-02-21T03:12:58Z

The United Nations agency that helps the worlds needy children issued a terse statement on Tuesday about the escalating death toll in Syria as pro-government forces hammer rebel-held areas.

No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones, said the agencys regional director, Geert Cappelaere .

That sentence was followed by 10 blank lines and captioned with the hashtag #RunningOutOfWords.

Syrias pro-government forces backed by Russia and Iran hammered the rebel-held district of eastern Ghouta on Tuesday. At least 250 people have died since Sunday night, with many children among the victims. Eastern Ghouta is the remaining rebel-held area east of Damascus, and has been under siege by Syrian President Bashar Assad s forces since 2013.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the surge of violence which left 58 children and 42 women dead on Tuesday was the highest 48-hour death toll in the Syrian conflict since a 2013 chemical attack on eastern Ghouta, where about 400,000 people live.

Panos Moumtzis, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator for Syria, condemned the bombing of five hospitals in eastern Ghouta and said intentional attacks on medical facilities may amount to war crimes.