Health care attacks top 10,000 since 2018, WHO says

The World Health Organization said Friday that more than 10,000 attacks on health care have been recorded since 2018 across 29 countries and territories, causing approximately 5,700 deaths and 8,500 injuries.

Altaf Musani, director of the WHO's humanitarian and disaster management unit, told a Geneva media briefing that “not a single one” of the verified incidents had entered the accountability system.

The WHO verifies and records attacks on health care but does not attribute blame, saying it is not an investigation agency. Musani said health facilities and health systems are protected under international humanitarian and rights law and under certain Geneva Conventions.

For 2026 alone, the UN health agency has recorded 914 attacks, resulting in 911 deaths and 1,486 injuries, Musani said. Ukraine, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories account for most incidents this year, with others reported in Myanmar, Iran, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Sudan, Russia, Syria and Nigeria.

Musani said heavy weapons were the most frequently reported type of attack this year, followed by obstruction of health care and psychological violence. He said 44 reported incidents involved the abduction, arrest or detention of health workers and patients, affecting 148 people.

He said all 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip had sustained damage by the end of 2025. In Ukraine, the WHO has verified more than 3,000 attacks since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and Musani said a WHO warehouse in Dnipro was destroyed last week.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Musani said 12 attacks on health care had been verified since a deadly Ebola outbreak was declared in May, disrupting surveillance, case investigation, contact tracing, treatment and community engagement.