The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) have called for stronger protection of healthcare during armed conflicts, citing safeguards under international humanitarian law.
Ms Supriya Rao, Legal Adviser, ICRC Headquarters, said healthcare protection was foundational to international humanitarian law, with Geneva Conventions and Additional Protocols establishing obligations concerning wounded and sick people.
Rao made the remarks on Thursday during a webinar titled “Health Care Under Attack, From Evidence to Action”, stressing safeguards for medical personnel, facilities and transport.
She said hospitals, ambulances and medical workers enjoyed specific protection under international humanitarian law because medical missions must remain functional to provide care to wounded and sick people.
She said hospitals were presumed protected and circumstances under which medical facilities could lose protection were narrow and exceptional, while distinction, proportionality and precaution principles continued to apply.
The ICRC legal adviser said the Global IHL Initiative, inaugurated in 2024, had brought states and humanitarian actors together to strengthen political commitment and develop shared technical understanding.
She said 118 states had joined the initiative, while more than 160 states participated in consultations, with the hospital-protection workstream co-chaired by Nigeria, Pakistan, Spain and Uruguay.
Also, Ms Reem Mougheith, Regional Humanitarian Representative for the Middle East and North Africa, MSF International, said attacks on healthcare remained routine in spite of UN Security Council Resolution 2286.
She said the resolution was intended to strengthen protection for medical personnel and facilities, but healthcare workers continued to face risks while providing services in conflict-affected settings.
Mougheith recalled the 2015 attack on an MSF trauma centre in Kunduz, Afghanistan, which killed 42 people, including 14 MSF staff, highlighting risks faced by healthcare workers.
She cited a recent attack on Jabal Ahmed Hospital in South Lebanon, where Ministry of Health figures indicated that four people were killed and 127 injured, including 39 hospital staff.
Mougheith said the attack also destroyed the intensive care unit and disrupted surgical and radiology services, further limiting healthcare access for patients requiring urgent medical attention.
In Sudan, she said an attack on an emergency department at a facility treating severe cholera cases forced suspension of services, while in Gaza, an operation was interrupted.
She said the operation on a two-year-old child was interrupted when the hospital’s only bone-drilling machine stopped working, illustrating how attacks and disruptions could directly affect patient care.
Mougheith said healthcare workers could face the painful choice of abandoning patients or remaining to provide care while risking another attack, noting that staff were also affected.
She said healthcare workers were members of communities affected by displacement and destruction, making them vulnerable to the same humanitarian consequences experienced by the populations they served.
She called for meaningful accountability and independent investigations into attacks, emphasising that documentation alone could not stop attacks and that parties to conflicts must assume responsibility.
Mougheith said parties to conflicts must respect the legal protection afforded to medical missions and ensure healthcare workers, facilities and patients could access and provide essential services safely.