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Arab News
5 days ago
- Health
- Arab News
Experts call for ‘healthocide' designation after surge in attacks on doctors, hospitals in war
LONDON: The targeting of medical facilities in war should be categorized as 'healthocide,' academics have said, amid a surge in such attacks in recent years. Most deliberate attacks on health services have taken place in Gaza since 2023, but other strikes have been recorded in Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and Ukraine, The Guardian reported. Individual medical staff have also been deliberately targeted. International humanitarian law has explicitly promoted the longstanding principle of medical neutrality, which prohibits attacks on healthcare workers and facilities during war, enabling doctors and surgeons to perform their work on anyone in need. Dr. Joelle Abi-Rached and his colleagues at the American University of Beirut submitted a commentary to the British Medical Journal warning of the surge in the targeting of health services. 'Both in Gaza and Lebanon, healthcare facilities have not only been directly targeted, but access to care has also been obstructed, including incidents where ambulances have been prevented from reaching the injured, or deliberately attacked,' they wrote. 'What is becoming clear is that healthcare workers and facilities are no longer afforded the protection guaranteed by international humanitarian law.' The authors highlighted data from Israel's invasion of Gaza, which has killed at least 986 medical workers. Healthcare Workers Watch data also shows that 28 doctors from the Palestinian enclave are being detained without charge in Israeli prisons. Eight of them are senior consultants in surgery, orthopedics, intensive care, cardiology and pediatrics. Gaza's health facilities, including major hospitals, have been 'turned into battlegrounds' by Israel's assault, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, representative of the World Health Organization for the West Bank and Gaza, said in January. Israel has also engaged in a policy to 'systematically dismantle' the health system and 'drive it to the brink of collapse,' he added. Earlier this year, The Guardian conducted an investigative project, Doctors in Detention, to interview healthcare workers in Gaza. They told the newspaper that their detention, along with hundreds of other medical staff held by the Israeli military, was likely due to their occupation. In detention, they suffered torture, beatings, starvation and humiliation, The Guardian was told. Their Israeli guards also played loud music throughout the day and night to prevent them from sleeping, and they were regularly denied food, water and showers. Israel's war in Lebanon last year also featured similar tactics to disrupt and destroy local health services. According to Lebanon's Public Health Ministry, 217 healthcare workers were killed by the Israel Defense Forces between Oct. 8, 2023, and Jan. 27, 2025. A further 177 ambulances were damaged, and authorities recorded 68 separate attacks on Lebanese hospitals. Doctors around the world must 'forsake the principle of medical neutrality' and voice their concerns over 'healthocide,' the authors of the BMJ commentary urged. Failing to do so would only embolden future violations of the neutrality principle, they warned, adding that the documentation of attacks and abuses against health workers would help in the enforcement of justice. The British Medical Association's medical ethics committee chair, Dr. Andrew Green, said: 'In recent years, doctors have been devastated to see the appalling increase in attacks on healthcare, patients and staff in conflict zones, and the disregard for medical neutrality and international humanitarian law.' He called on international medical associations, NGOs, governments and the UN to 'call out when we see human and health rights abused, and hold those breaking international humanitarian law accountable. 'Those with power must use all levers at their disposal to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid and urgent healthcare to the world's most vulnerable. 'One clear step would be the establishment of a UN special rapporteur on the protection of health in armed conflict.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Healthocide': experts warn of rise in targeting of health services in conflict
Targeting medics and hospitals in acts of war should be called 'healthocide', academics have urged, amid an increase in such attacks in recent years. Health services are increasingly deliberately under attack and medics are facing violence and abuse in conflict zones around the world – in particular in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and El Salvador. This is despite the longstanding principle under international humanitarian law of medical neutrality, which protects healthcare workers and facilities during armed conflict and civil unrest, enabling them to provide medical care to those in need. In a commentary published in the British Medical Journal, Dr Joelle Abi-Rached and colleagues of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon wrote: 'Both in Gaza and Lebanon, healthcare facilities have not only been directly targeted, but access to care has also been obstructed, including incidents where ambulances have been prevented from reaching the injured, or deliberately attacked. 'What is becoming clear is that healthcare workers and facilities are no longer afforded the protection guaranteed by international humanitarian law.' The authors cite data from Israel's full-scale invasion of Gaza, which has resulted in at least 986 medical workers' deaths. Recent figures from the Healthcare Workers Watch show that 28 doctors from Gaza are being held inside Israeli prisons without any charge, eight them senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics. The World Health Organization's representative for the West Bank and Gaza stated at the UN security council in January that hospitals in Gaza had 'turned into battlegrounds', while the healthcare system was being 'systematically dismantled and driven to the brink of collapse'. Healthcare workers in Gaza who were among the hundreds detained by the Israeli military who spoke to the Guardian for the Doctors in Detention project in early 2025 believed they were targeted because they were doctors. They shared harrowing testimonies of torture, beatings, starvation and humiliation, including being constantly beaten and kept in stress positions for hours at a time, and having loud music played nonstop to prevent them from sleeping. They were also denied food, water, showers and changes of clothes. Lebanon's ministry of public health has found that between 8 October 2023 and 27 January 2025, 217 healthcare workers were killed by the Israel Defense Forces, 177 ambulances were damaged, and 68 attacks on hospitals were recorded. Figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition recorded 3,623 attacks on or obstruction of healthcare in 2024, the highest number ever documented. These attacks included doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals who were beaten, arbitrarily arrested, kidnapped, tortured and killed; patients shot in their beds or dragged to detention centres; and hospitals that were deliberately bombed and raided. The authors of the BMJ article are calling on doctors to 'forsake the principle of medical neutrality' and speak out against 'healthocide' or face emboldening future violators. This might include advocating for enforcement of justice and international humanitarian law, and documenting and exposing abuses of medical neutrality. Writing in the Guardian, Maarten van der Heijden, a global health lawyer and researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, noted that the international humanitarian laws, the Geneva conventions, leave 'considerable room for interpretation and forgoes accountability', allowing hospitals to be bombed if it is considered 'harmful to the enemy'. The British Medical Association's medical ethics committee chair, Dr Andrew Green, said: 'In recent years, doctors have been devastated to see the appalling increase in attacks on healthcare, patients and staff in conflict zones, and the disregard for medical neutrality and international humanitarian law.' He noted that although there were examples around the world, Gaza was the most severe given that 'the population is both at risk of imminent famine, while health systems necessary to look after the starving have been systematically obliterated and health workers killed and arbitrarily detained.' He urged international medical associations, NGOs, governments and the UN to 'call out when we see human and health rights abused, and hold those breaking international humanitarian law accountable'. 'Those with power must use all levers at their disposal to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid and urgent healthcare to the world's most vulnerable. One clear step would be the establishment of a UN special rapporteur on the protection of health in armed conflict,' he added. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office minister Hamish Falconer has previously said that the UK government is urging the Israeli authorities to ensure that 'incidents are investigated transparently and that those responsible are held to account and lessons learned'.
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
‘Healthocide': experts warn of rise in targeting of health services in conflict
Targeting medics and hospitals in acts of war should be called 'healthocide', academics have urged, amid an increase in such attacks in recent years. Health services are increasingly deliberately under attack and medics are facing violence and abuse in conflict zones around the world – in particular in Gaza, but also in Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Syria and El Salvador. This is despite the longstanding principle under international humanitarian law of medical neutrality, which protects healthcare workers and facilities during armed conflict and civil unrest, enabling them to provide medical care to those in need. In a commentary published in the British Medical Journal, Dr Joelle Abi-Rached and colleagues of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon wrote: 'Both in Gaza and Lebanon, healthcare facilities have not only been directly targeted, but access to care has also been obstructed, including incidents where ambulances have been prevented from reaching the injured, or deliberately attacked. 'What is becoming clear is that healthcare workers and facilities are no longer afforded the protection guaranteed by international humanitarian law.' The authors cite data from Israel's full-scale invasion of Gaza, which has resulted in at least 986 medical workers' deaths. Recent figures from the Healthcare Workers Watch show that 28 doctors from Gaza are being held inside Israeli prisons without any charge, eight them senior consultants in surgery, orthopaedics, intensive care, cardiology and paediatrics. The World Health Organization's representative for the West Bank and Gaza stated at the UN security council in January that hospitals in Gaza had 'turned into battlegrounds', while the healthcare system was being 'systematically dismantled and driven to the brink of collapse'. Healthcare workers in Gaza who were among the hundreds detained by the Israeli military who spoke to the Guardian for the Doctors in Detention project in early 2025 believed they were targeted because they were doctors. They shared harrowing testimonies of torture, beatings, starvation and humiliation, including being constantly beaten and kept in stress positions for hours at a time, and having loud music played nonstop to prevent them from sleeping. They were also denied food, water, showers and changes of clothes. Lebanon's ministry of public health has found that between 8 October 2023 and 27 January 2025, 217 healthcare workers were killed by the Israel Defense Forces, 177 ambulances were damaged, and 68 attacks on hospitals were recorded. Figures from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition recorded 3,623 attacks on or obstruction of healthcare in 2024, the highest number ever documented. These attacks included doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals who were beaten, arbitrarily arrested, kidnapped, tortured and killed; patients shot in their beds or dragged to detention centres; and hospitals that were deliberately bombed and raided. The authors of the BMJ article are calling on doctors to 'forsake the principle of medical neutrality' and speak out against 'healthocide' or face emboldening future violators. This might include advocating for enforcement of justice and international humanitarian law, and documenting and exposing abuses of medical neutrality. Writing in the Guardian, Maarten van der Heijden, a global health lawyer and researcher at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, noted that the international humanitarian laws, the Geneva conventions, leave 'considerable room for interpretation and forgoes accountability', allowing hospitals to be bombed if it is considered 'harmful to the enemy'. The British Medical Association's medical ethics committee chair, Dr Andrew Green, said: 'In recent years, doctors have been devastated to see the appalling increase in attacks on healthcare, patients and staff in conflict zones, and the disregard for medical neutrality and international humanitarian law.' He noted that although there were examples around the world, Gaza was the most severe given that 'the population is both at risk of imminent famine, while health systems necessary to look after the starving have been systematically obliterated and health workers killed and arbitrarily detained.' He urged international medical associations, NGOs, governments and the UN to 'call out when we see human and health rights abused, and hold those breaking international humanitarian law accountable'. 'Those with power must use all levers at their disposal to ensure the provision of humanitarian aid and urgent healthcare to the world's most vulnerable. One clear step would be the establishment of a UN special rapporteur on the protection of health in armed conflict,' he added. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office minister Hamish Falconer has previously said that the UK government is urging the Israeli authorities to ensure that 'incidents are investigated transparently and that those responsible are held to account and lessons learned'.
