Justice in Conflict

The doctors assumed that a well-marked hospital would be safe, especially since the warring parties in the region were informed of its existence and its life-saving operations. But they were wrong, and the attacks came in waves. When it was over, the hospital walls were charred, the windows were shattered, and its roof had collapsed. Two dozen patients were killed, and many more were injured. The facility, its staff and the patients inside of the hospital were supposed to be protected from attack. At least that’s what international humanitarian law – the rules that govern conduct in war – says. But on that day, law offered no protection and those responsible for its violation escaped accountability. 

The above is not a summary of recent attacks on hospitals in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Iran, or Israel – though readers could be excused for assuming otherwise. It’s what happened in the early hours of 3 October 2015, when an American gunship attacked Kunduz hospital, in Afghanistan, run by Médecins Sans Frontières. The official U.S. military response to its bombing of the hospital was that the attack was a “mistake”. No justice followed. Instead, the events led to the “Not A Target” campaign, aimed at ending attacks on hospitals. As important as it is, that campaign has not worked. In recent years, attacks on medical facilities – by Russia, Israel, Sudanese armed forces, and Iran – have become an almost daily occurrence. That the wounded, sick, and disabled, as well as newborn babies, are increasingly the targets of deadly, indiscriminate attacks demands more than rhetorical condemnation. It demands accountability.

The list of hospitals and medical facilities attacked by in Sudan, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel, and Iran is disturbingly long. An accounting of each attack is beyond the scope of this article, but the numbers are staggering. In Gaza alone, it is estimated that 94% of hospitals have been damaged or destroyed by the almost 1,900 attacks waged by Israeli forces on health-care facilities.

Each attack has been met with similar shock and anger victims from victims, humanitarians, and human rights activists. Recently, the residents of Beersheeba, Israel, where Iranian missiles struck the Soroka hospital, were dismayed – and rightfully so. One doctor at the hospital said: “I never thought something like this could happen. Never.” Following military strikes on the al-Mujlad Hospital, which straddles the front lines between the Rapid Support Forces and Sudanese Armed Forces, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus exclaimed: “We cannot say this louder: attacks on health must stop everywhere!”