Hospitals

Medical Help Scarce in Besieged Syrian City

Monday, October 20, 2014
A doctor inside the besieged Syrian city of Kobani described desperate conditions on the ground, with hospitals being targeted by Islamic State militants and an acute lack of medical workers and supplies. Walat Omar, one of only a handful of doctors who have stayed in Kobani, said many civilians—mostly elderly—remain in the predominantly Kurdish city, which has been under a monthlong siege by the extremist group.

Warning from a Mass Grave: Hospitals Under Attack

Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Armed attacks on hospitals are occurring more often around the world, resulting in death, injury and destroyed facilities. What can be done to stop this disturbing trend? In human tradition, three types of institutions have been considered safe in times of violence and civil strife; that is, it is expected that they will be exempt from armed attack. These institutions are places of worship, schools and hospitals.

No Place to Heal

Friday, August 29, 2014
Malakal is a ghost town. Once South Sudan's second-biggest city with a population of 150,000, it is now home to more soldiers than civilians. Residential areas have suffered an extraordinary amount of damage since civil war broke out in December 2013, and the teaching hospital, which occupies a once-idyllic compound near a stone mosque built by Egypt in the 1940s, has been laid waste on multiple occasions. The trail of corpses now being discovered on the premises points to a disturbing trend in the country's eight-month-old rebellion: the systematic targeting of hospitals and medical personnel.

UN, Humanitarian Partners Launch Health Plan in Crisis-Torn Eastern Ukraine

Friday, August 15, 2014
In the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, some 15 hospitals have been damaged in the fighting and so far 20 health facilities have closed. Up to 70 per cent of health care workers have fled while the crisis prevents patients from accessing much needed health care. It is estimated that 5,000 people in that region have been wounded.

Violence against Health Care: The Problem and the Law

Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Health workers and patients face extraordinary risks in today’s armed conflicts. Part I of the International Review of the Red Cross’s thematic issue on violence against health care focuses on patterns of attacks, based on results from data collection and field studies. The issue also outlines the legal and ethical frameworks that apply to the provision of health care.

Amnesty Accuses Israeli Army of "Deliberate Attacks" on Gaza Health Workers

Thursday, August 7, 2014
Amnesty International is accusing the Israeli army of making “deliberate” attacks on Gaza health workers. It made the accusations this morning while calling for an immediate investigation into “mounting evidence that the Israel Defence Forces launched apparently deliberate attacks against hospitals and health professionals in Gaza, which have left six medics dead”.

Gaza: Health Crisis Looms for Trapped Civilians

Saturday, August 2, 2014
Overnight Israel punished the town of Rafah, 30 kilometres south of Gaza, relentlessly. It’s where the Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin went missing on Friday after an ambush by Hamas forces. In the past 24 hours, more than 60 people have died there, according to the health ministry. The only acute hospital was evacuated after a shell hit the entrance of its emergency room. At the Shifa hospital in Gaza City doctors are struggling.

Libya Health Care System Risks Collapse

Friday, August 1, 2014
The Philippines began to evacuate 13,000 citizens from Libya as violence continued to rage, AFP reported. The move came after a kidnapped Filipino worker was beheaded and a nurse gang-raped. Libya has warned of a “total collapse” of its health care system, as the security chaos threatens to send into flight many of the foreign workers on whom its hospitals depend.

Coalition: Civilian Health in Gaza in Grave Jeopardy from Attacks on Facilities, Ambulances, and Infrastructure

Thursday, July 31, 2014
We, the undersigned members of the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, demand that the government of Israel, Hamas, and armed groups respect their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law to respect and protect health facilities, transports, and personnel, and to make health services available to all people in need of care. The Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition promotes the security of health workers and services threatened by war or civil unrest.

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