Assad regime’s offensive puts Syria on top of rankings for attacks on health centres

Dozens of strikes on medical facilities in Syria, mostly by regime forces and allies, placed the war-torn country at the top of a global ranking of attacks on hospitals and doctors.

The ranking was released as part of a report documenting over 700 attacks on hospitals, health works, patients and ambulances in 23 countries last year. The report said more than 101 health workers and 293 patients were killed in the attacks.

The comprehensive report released by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict coalition this week warned that assaults on health care in conflict areas are going unpunished and may also be rising.

Of the more than 700 cases of attacks on medical professionals, about 250 took place in Syria. Of these, 34 were found to be perpetrated by president Bashar Al Assad’s regime and Russian allies, one by rebel group Jaish Al Islam and three by unidentified groups.

Other attacks on medical staff across the country were on transport and personnel.

Runners-up on the list was Palestine with 93 documented cases and Afghanistan in third with 66 cases.

“These attacks terrorise communities. They deprive already-suffering civilians of the life-saving treatment that they deserve,” said Susannah Sirkin, of Physicians for Human Rights, which is part of the coalition.

In Syria, the retaking of Eastern Ghouta by government forces last month was a reminder that the seven-year war continues to be characterised by a disregard for civilian life. The physicians’ group verified 38 attacks on medical centres during the offensive.

“In early 2014, Syrian forces bombed or shelled hospitals more than 100 times – more than had been documented in any other conflict,” the coalition’s chair, Len Rubenstein, said in the report.

“By the end of 2017, the number of hospitals shelled or bombed in the country approached 500, and then that grisly milestone was surpassed in early 2018.”

In Palestine, Israel’s occupation and blockade are increasingly exacerbated by its security forces’ interference with the delivery of health care, obstruction of medical transport and “denial of impartial care to wounded civilians”.

The report cites incidents of violence within hospitals, including violence against medical staff – pushing, kicking and beating as well as the disruption of medical treatment, resulting in the death of patients.

The report cited a case documented by Amnesty International in which Israeli forces were pursuing Mohammed Abu Ghannam, a young man with a major chest wound in critical condition.

They reportedly entered the operating theatre and “shoved and hit” the doctor who was trying to provide urgent care. Mohammed died of his wounds during the incident.

A nurse working during the raid said: “I have never been so scared in my life. All I remember were loud sounds and pushing and screaming. It was total chaos. There was blood all over the place on the floor on the walls.”

In Afghanistan, where international and national armed forces have embroiled the country in a decades-old bloody conflict, there were at least 66 attacks on medical centres and personnel last year. The Taliban carried out at least 27 of the attacks.

The report also listed 52 attacks in the Central African Republic, 37 in South Sudan, 35 in Iraq, 24 in Yemen, 23 in Nigeria and 20 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Also this week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said that more than 1,200 violent incidents against hospitals and medical personnel have taken place in 16 countries in the two years since the UN adopted a resolution demanding that combatants protect staff and centres treating the wounded and sick.

The Red Cross director general, Yves Daccord, told the UN Security Council that “the gap between words and action is rather dramatic”.

Another report on health care in Libya, published on Tuesday by the UN Mission in Libya and the UN human rights office, said 36 attacks on medical centres, personnel or patients were reported from May 1 last year to May 1, 2018.

But the report said “the actual number of attacks is believed to be significantly higher”.

“Hospitals and other healthcare facilities in Libya have been bombed, shelled and hit by violence during armed violence,” it said.

The report also noted that foreign doctors and nurses had fled the country, “further affecting the quality of available health care in Libya”.

The report cites incidents of violence within hospitals, including violence against medical staff