Endorsing violence

Under international humanitarian law, no healthcare facility or personnel, wounded or sick persons, and transport facilities such as ambulances and medical supply vans should be attacked or harmed during an armed conflict. Yet, reality tells a devastatingly different story. The WHO reports that despite these enshrined protections, more than 10,000 attacks on healthcare have been documented since 2018. Most damning of all, however, is the complete lack of accountability - not a single one of these cases has culminated in a just outcome for the victims.

While unfortunate, it is also unsurprising that a majority of these attacks were carried out in Palestine, Ukraine and Lebanon. Regions engaged in conflict often experience greater violence against their healthcare systems and patients, as such attacks are increasingly being seen as viable tactics in a war. A primary reason for this is a lack of accountability that plagues these cases, inadvertently encouraging such heinous acts.

In over 10,000 attacks across eight years, almost 5,700 people have lost their lives, and 8,500 people have sustained injuries. In any legal system of a functioning society, even a single wrongful death is brought to justice, let alone 5,700 deaths that never make it past documentation and towards accountability.

On top of the legal negligence, the consequences of such attacks are far-reaching and never confined within the boundaries of the region that's attacked. They directly affect the number of outpatient visits the very next day, with disruptions often lingering beyond a month.

In Sudan, more than a third of health facilities are now non-functional. In Gaza, every hospital has sustained damage. These statistics represent collapsing maternal care, disrupted vaccination drives and halted disease surveillance, among other compromised healthcare services. While attacks on healthcare are inherently abhorrent, the complete absence of legal consequences amounts to a silent endorsement by the international community.