Facts

Between February 2022 and April 2026, the World Health Organization recorded the following figures on attacks against healthcare in armed conflicts.

Source: World Health Organization

Source: World Health Organization

To put it into perspective, we compared the total number of healthcare workers in these countries with the number of killed healthcare workers to calculate the percentage of healthcare workers killed per country:

Total killed ÷ total healthcare workers in country

• The situation in Gaza remains highly precarious and volatile. The flow of aid keeps being stopped randomly and Israeli attacks with civilian deaths happen almost daily. As attention turned elsewhere during the war against Iran and Lebanon, the humanitarian situation in Gaza deteriorated severely.
  
  Due to the blockade of all border crossings to Gaza, almost no medical supplies and gasoline for the operation of generators and ambulances reached Gaza. Food imports are again severely restricted. As a result, the wounded cannot heal: without adequate nutrition, wound-healing disorders and infections are rising dramatically. Weakened immune systems leave the body unable to fight off the infectious diseases now spreading unchecked amid catastrophic sanitary conditions
• During its war against Gaza, Israel had attacked and bombed almost all of Gaza's hospitals. Many are completely out of operation, and all of them are severely restricted in their function. Hundreds of patients and over 1700 healthcare workers have been killed in the attacks. Time and again, medical personnel have been targeted or even outright executed, such as the paramedics in Rafah on 23d of March2025, or those who were on their way to rescue the girl Hind Rajab on 29st of January2024. In the rest of the Palestinian territories, too, attacks on the health service took place practically every day. These are clear war crimes and violations of international law.
• As justification for the systematic bombing of health facilities, Israel claimed that they serve as Hamas command centers. This claim has been repeatedly and vehemently denied by international aid organizations and doctors working with these organizations in Gaza.
• Countless doctors and other healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza, which has led to a massive shortage of healthcare personnel, in particular, a shortage of specialists. This makes it even more difficult to provide medical care to the suffering population.
• Hundreds of healthcare workers (doctors, nurses, etc.) in Gaza have been abducted, unlawfully detained and in many cases tortured. Many died from mistreatment in captivity, while others were intentionally tortured to death, among them the head of orthopedics at Al Shifa Hospital, Dr. Adnan Al Bursh. Many more are in critical condition after months of inhumane treatment. The pediatrician and medical director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, is a prominent example.