WHO warns attacks on healthcare surge globally amid Middle East conflict

The red line protecting hospitals and medics is eroding fast. The World Health Organization said attacks on health care were rising worldwide, with a sharp uptick after the latest Middle East conflict escalated, and the pattern is now threatening not just patients and staff but the survival of fragile health systems.

WHO said attacks on hospitals, clinics and health workers averaged about 3.7 a day globally before U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iran at the end of February 2026, then climbed to 4.3 a day afterward. The agency has framed the surge as part of a wider breakdown in the rules that were meant to keep medical care out of war, warning that protected spaces are increasingly being treated as fair game or as collateral damage.

The organization defines an attack on health care broadly, covering verbal or physical violence, obstruction and threats that interfere with access to services. It launched its Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care in December 2017 and says it verifies incidents and publishes them in near real time through partner reporting. Between January 2024 and August 2025, WHO’s Global Health Cluster said it documented 2,450 attacks on health care across 21 countries and territories, with 2,060 deaths and 2,395 injuries among health workers and patients.

The consequences reach far beyond the blast sites. WHO and humanitarian groups say sustained attacks cut access to vaccinations, prenatal care, chronic-disease treatment, surgeries and emergency care, while also forcing aid groups to work around damaged roads, depleted supplies and overwhelmed facilities. WHO said in March 2026 that more than ten days into the latest Middle East escalation, health systems across the region were already under strain from injuries, displacement, continuing attacks on health care and rising public-health risks.

Insecurity Insight said the violence has become more lethal and more technologically aggressive. Its data showed the share of reported attacks involving explosive weapons rising from 36% in 2023 to 48% in 2024, while the use of armed drones affecting health care rose from 9% to 20%. WHO’s surveillance system recorded 1,348 attacks on medical facilities in 2025, with 1,981 deaths.

The pattern has been especially stark in the occupied Palestinian territory, where the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition identified 1,361 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in 2024, up from 1,170 in 2023. Médecins Sans Frontières has described repeated attacks on medical facilities and staff as part of a broader dismantling of civilian infrastructure. With damaged medical sites in Lebanon and elsewhere now part of the evidence base, WHO’s warning is clear: when health care becomes a battlefield, the damage to civilians can last for years.