Dozens of civilians tried to flee opposition-held east Aleppo overnight but were forced back by gunfire, as the Syrian army on Wednesday (November 23rd) pressed an offensive to recapture the whole city, AFP reported.

The government last week resumed its drive to retake the east of the city, where more than 250,000 civilians have been trapped under siege by the army for months, with dwindling food and fuel supplies .

The regime has pounded the east with airstrikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire for more than a week, killing more than 140 people as it advances.

On Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said dozens of civilians had tried to flee overnight but were forced back by gunfire.

"On Tuesday night, around 100 families gathered near a passage from the (opposition-held) Bustan al-Basha district to cross to Sheikh Maqsud," said Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman.

"But when the civilians tried to cross to the other side, gunfire broke out," he told AFP without elaborating.

Sheikh Maqsud is a northern neighbourhood controlled by Kurdish forces, allied with neither the regime nor the opposition, between the government-held west and opposition-held east.

The renewed bloodshed has stoked international concern, though there has been little sign so far of a plan to halt it.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on Wednesday that backers of Syria's moderate opposition would meet in Paris in early December to discuss the situation.

He urged the international community to "stop averting its gaze" from the "terrible reality" of the conflict.

Save the Children called for an internationally monitored ceasefire to allow aid into east Aleppo and the evacuation of sick and wounded civilians.

"It is a moral outrage that the death toll of Aleppo's children continues to grow and seems only set to get worse, whilst so little action is being taken to end the bombing and hold warring parties accountable," the charity's Syria director, Sonia Khush, said.

The latest government offensive has hit hospitals and rescue centres, and forced schools to close.