Children in Syria are to meet next month to join in mass prayer to end the "spiral of death" that is killing hundreds of people in rebel-held districts of Aleppo.
Gates are being left open and barriers raised to allow anyone living in the rebel-held areas to flee as the bombing was again stepped up over the weekend, resulting in more terrible bloodshed.
Christian and Muslim boys and girls in Aleppo will join together to pray for an end to the deathly bombing raids, Archbishop Boutros Marayati, head of Armenian Catholic church in Aleppo, told Agenzia Fides.
The school children will sign and fingerprint an appeal begging world rulers to put an end to the massacres.
"But above all, they will pray. They will pray for all of their peers. And we trust in the fact that children's prayer is more powerful than ours," said Archbishop Marayati.
More than 90 people died on Friday and more than 100 on Saturday as all hopes of the continuation of the cease fire disappeared and Syria and Russia stepped up their efforts to recapture Aleppo.
Many of those killed and injured were children and distressing photographs emerged of dead children buried in rubble.
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday his government will not stop until it has retaken the entire city.
Archbishop Marayati said: "On Wednesday, the representatives of the government and the Syrian army convened a meeting to explain that soon an appeal would be spread to the civilian population settled in the neighborhoods under rebel control."
He said it was not a mass evacuation.
"Perhaps many cannot leave. And the appeal also contained an expiration date, and the ultimatum expires in coming days. New blood will be shed if the powers behind the two warring parties do not decide to really put an end to this dirty war."
