Attacking Healthcare Has Become a Strategy of War, Data Reveals

The BMJ exposes a disturbing surge in military strikes against hospitals and medical staff worldwide, with figures suggesting the deliberate destruction of civilian healthcare systems is now a tactic of modern conflict.

Recent conflicts across Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, and Lebanon have thrown into sharp focus a deeply troubling shift in modern warfare: the systematic targeting of healthcare facilities and medical staff. New analysis published by The BMJ reveals that according to The BMJ’s analysis, attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and health workers have nearly tripled in the past five years, suggesting that denying civilians access to medical care is becoming an established military strategy.

The data is stark. According to The BMJ’s analysis of the Attacks on Health Care in Countries in Conflict dataset, military and hostile attacks on healthcare infrastructure and personnel rose markedly between 2020 and the end of 2024. The dataset, maintained by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition and hosted by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, provides the most comprehensive global picture of these attacks.

The human cost is devastating. In Lebanon, official Ministry of Public Health data shows that between 8 October 2023 and 27 January 2025, 217 healthcare workers were killed by military forces. A further 177 ambulances were damaged, 68 hospitals suffered direct attacks, and 237 emergency medical services faced hostile action. In Gaza, medical workers have borne an even heavier burden, with reportedly at least 986 medical workers killed since October 2023. This figure includes 165 doctors, 260 nurses, 184 health associates, 76 pharmacists, 300 management and support staff members, and 85 civil defence workers.

Beyond the direct targeting of facilities and personnel, The BMJ’s analysis highlights something more systematic and disturbing: the deliberate obstruction of healthcare access itself. In both Gaza and Lebanon, ambulances have been prevented from reaching injured people or have been deliberately attacked. Healthcare facilities have been destroyed not merely as military targets, but as part of a broader strategy to undermine civilian populations’ ability to receive care.

This pattern represents a fundamental breach of international humanitarian law. The Geneva Conventions, established following the devastation of the Second World War, granted healthcare workers and facilities special protected status. Medical personnel, hospitals, and ambulances are supposed to be clearly identifiable and shielded from attack. Yet The BMJ’s investigation suggests these protections are increasingly being disregarded.

Experts have begun using a new term to describe this phenomenon. In a recent commentary published in BMJ Global Health, researchers from the American University of Beirut proposed the word “healthocide”—the deliberate killing and destruction of health services and systems for ideological purposes. The authors, led by Dr Joelle Abi-Rached, argue that this represents something more troubling than the mere normalisation of healthcare attacks. It signals an active weaponisation of health systems themselves.

“Medical neutrality is not apolitical,” the researchers emphasise, “it means standing with humanity, social justice, and health-enabling policies.” They argue that the silence from medical associations, journals, and healthcare professionals in the West regarding these attacks amounts to complicity. Several major American, European, and Israeli medical organisations have issued only sparse or delayed statements about the destruction of healthcare in Gaza and Lebanon, they note.

The implications extend beyond the immediate conflict zones. When healthcare systems are attacked and destroyed with impunity, it creates a dangerous precedent. It signals to future combatants that targeting hospitals and health workers may be acceptable. It erodes the principle of medical neutrality that has underpinned humanitarian medicine for over 150 years—the idea that doctors and nurses should be permitted to work impartially, treating all sick and injured regardless of which side they belong to.

The timing of this escalation is significant. Modern conflicts have become increasingly asymmetrical. Drones, artificial intelligence for targeting, and the deployment of advanced weapons create new opportunities to strike civilian infrastructure with precision. Unlike traditional battlefield conflicts, modern warfare often takes place in or near populated areas where hospitals are essential civilian infrastructure. The destruction of healthcare doesn’t just kill medical workers; it denies entire populations access to treatment for injuries, illness, and childbirth.

Ukraine has documented similar patterns. Since Russia’s invasion in 2022, hundreds of healthcare facilities have been damaged or destroyed. Health workers have been killed, captured, and subjected to threats. The World Health Organization has recorded numerous attacks on Ukrainian health facilities, though often with less international attention than similar incidents in the Middle East.

Researchers and medical ethicists argue that healthcare professionals must respond more forcefully. The call is not for doctors to abandon their commitment to treating all patients impartially, but rather to advocate loudly for the enforcement of international humanitarian law, to document abuses, and to ensure that violations are exposed and, where possible, prosecuted.

For civilians living through these conflicts, the consequences are catastrophic. When hospitals are destroyed or inaccessible, people die from treatable conditions. Pregnant women cannot access safe delivery care. Diabetics cannot obtain insulin. Accident victims bleed out because ambulances cannot reach them. The destruction of healthcare strikes at the very foundation of civilian survival during conflict.

View tweet from @bmj_latest

Source: @bmj_latest

Key Takeaways

According to The BMJ’s analysis, attacks on healthcare facilities and staff have nearly tripled between 2020 and 2024, based on global conflict data

According to available data, over 1,200 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza and Lebanon since October 2023, with hundreds of hospitals and ambulances deliberately targeted or damaged

Medical experts have termed the systematic destruction of health services as “healthocide”—a deliberate tactic to deny civilian populations access to care

These attacks violate international humanitarian law and undermine the principle of medical neutrality established over 150 years ago

What This Means for Kent Residents

Whilst these conflicts are geographically distant, they have profound implications for how we understand healthcare as a human right. For Kent residents, this serves as a reminder of the importance of protecting our own NHS services. The attacks on healthcare systems in conflict zones highlight why maintaining well-funded, accessible healthcare infrastructure is essential to human dignity and security. If you have concerns about NHS provision in Kent, the NHS Kent and Medway ICB oversees health commissioning for our region. Understanding global threats to healthcare also helps us recognise why international medical organisations and the UK government’s commitment to humanitarian aid and international health security remain vital.

Source: @bmj_latest

Published: 16 March 2026

Source: @bmj_latest on X. This article has been researched and rewritten with editorial balance by Kent Local News.