The artillery casings the nine-year-old is cradling in his grimy hands come from guns that have helped to turned Aleppo into a dead zone.
However, the spent ammunition offers Aladdin a sliver of hope. Only by selling it for scrap metal will he find enough money to buy food.
As the civil war enters its third year, a report published by Unicef this week highlights the plight of Aladdin and millions of children like him in a country where destruction and appalling atrocities have become the norm and the young are now regarded as “legitimate” war targets – or recruited as soldiers, spies or arms smugglers.
Unicef says the number of children affected by the war has more than doubled over the past year from 2.3 million to more than 5.5million.
Since last March the number of displaced children still inside Syria has tripled from 920,000 to three million and child refugees have quadrupled from 260,000 to 1.2 million, with 425,000 of them under the age of five.
For too many children, each day is a battle to survive incessant bombardments and snipers’ bullets and the threat of malnutrition and disease. More than 10,000 children have died since the fighting began.
The report, Under Siege: The Devastating Impact On Children Of Three Years of Conflict, uses the words of children and their parents to paint a harrowing picture of lives damaged and childhoods lost.
Ghina Khalil was 14 months old when a bomb exploded near her home in Aleppo, leaving her legs trapped in the rubble of her bedroom.
Her father told Unicef: “The day our house was bombed I arrived home to find people digging in the rubble with their bare hands because they heard sounds coming from underneath.
“They found Ghina’s hands first and removed the dirt from her. She started to move and rub her eyes. Apparently she had been unconscious. She was not crying. She was under one and half metres of debris. Now she is recovered but sometimes at night she bursts into tears for no reason.”
He is scared of everything and is afraid when we leave him, even for a second
The report tells the story of a five-year-old girl, Bara, who was found wandering alone in the streets of Homs, the besieged rebel city, during a brief humanitarian pause last month.
A Unicef worker managed to reunite her with her father only to learn her mother had been killed by a mortar shell the previous day.
It is difficult to produce an accurate picture of the full extent of suffering inside a country torn by fighting between President Bashar al-Assad’s military forces and a hotch-potch of rebels and opposition forces.
Many accounts emerge only when families manage to find refuge in neighbouring countries.
A typical story is that of four-year old Adnan, who fled with his family to Lebanon. His face was scarred when his home was bombed but the emotional wound is deeper.
“He cries all night,” says his mother. “He is scared of everything and is afraid when we leave him, even for a second.”
Unicef estimates there are two million children like Adnan in need of psychological support or treatment.
“For Syria’s children, the past three years have been the longest of their lives. Must they endure another year of suffering?” said Unicef executive director Anthony Lake.
“This war has to end so that children can return to their homes to rebuild their lives in safety with their family and friends. This third devastating year for Syrian children must be the last.”
Unicef is calling for concerted action from the international community to end the cycle of violence in Syria now and reduce the social and economic effect of the conflict on families.
It says immediate access is needed to an estimated one million children who are at risk in Syria.
Areas must be set up where the children can be protected from violence and exploitation and can be educated and it wants them to get psychological care and support.
The British Red Cross has launched an appeal to help Syrians cope with the psychological impact of the crisis. Syria: Compassion in Conflict will fund vital emotional support for men, women and children inside the country. The appeal will support activities by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
Valentina Stivanello, British Red Cross Syria Crisis programme manager, said: “This terrible conflict has caused huge emotional damage. These wounds can be just as devastating as physical injuries. Our support will help people come to terms with what they’ve seen and how they’re feeling.”
Donations can be made at www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now/Make-a-single-donation/Syria-Compassion-in-Conflict