a conflict particularly destructive to health care

As of October 7, 2023, 47% of healthcare attacks – 65 out of 137 – proved fatal to at least one healthcare worker or patient in Lebanon, as of November 21, 2024.

This is a higher percentage than in any active conflict worldwide today – with almost half of all attacks on health resulting in the death of a health worker.

By comparison, the global average is 13.3%, based on SSA figures from 13 countries or territories that reported attacks in the same period, 7 October 2023 – 18 November 2024 – which include Ukraine, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt). In the case of oPt, 9.6% of the total number of incidents resulted in the death of at least one medical worker or patient.

According to the SSA, 226 health workers and patients were killed in Lebanon and 199 injured between October 7, 2023 and November 18, 2024.

In the same period, the SSA registered a total of 1401 attacks on health in the OPT, Lebanon and Israel – 1196 in the OPT, 137 in Lebanon and 68 in Israel.

Civilian healthcare has special protection

“These figures again reveal a very worrying pattern. It is unequivocal – depriving civilians of access to life-saving care and targeting health care providers is a violation of international humanitarian law. The law prohibits the use of health facilities for military purposes – and even if this is the case, strict conditions apply to taking action against them, including the duty to warn and wait after warning,” said WHO representative in Lebanon Dr. Abdinasir Abubakar.

International humanitarian law says that health workers and facilities should always be protected in armed conflicts and should never be attacked. Health facilities must not be used for military purposes, and there should be accountability for misuse of health facilities.

“Consequences are needed for disobeying international law, and the principles of caution, distinction and proportionality should always be followed. It has already been said that indiscriminate attacks on health care are a violation of human rights and international law that cannot become the new normal, neither in Gaza, nor in Lebanon, anywhere,” said the WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, Dr. Hanan Balkhy.

Most of the incidents in Lebanon affect health workers

The majority (68%) of incidents in Lebanon registered by the SSA affected health personnel, a pattern seen repeatedly in recent years, including in Gaza last year. In Lebanon, approximately 63% affected health transport and 26% affected health facilities.

Attacks on healthcare hit twice. First, when health workers lose their lives or when the health center is destroyed, and again in the following weeks and months when the injured cannot be treated, those who depend on regular care do not receive it, and children may not be immunized.

“This number of casualties among health workers would weaken any country, not only Lebanon. But what numbers alone cannot convey is the long-term impact, missed treatments for health problems, women and girls denied access to maternal, sexual and reproductive health services, undiagnosed treatable diseases and, ultimately, lives lost due to lack of health care. It is an impact that is difficult to quantify,” said dr. Abubakar.

1 out of 10 hospitals in Lebanon directly affected

The greater the blow to the health workforce, the weaker the country's long-term ability to recover from the crisis and provide health care in a post-conflict environment

Lebanon is a lower-middle-income country with a fairly advanced health care system that has been hit hard by numerous crises in recent years. After hostilities in Lebanon escalated in September 2024, the increasing number of attacks on health caused additional strain on an already overburdened system.

Today, the country's healthcare system is under great pressure, with 15 out of 153 hospitals closed or only partially functioning. Nabatieh, for example, one of Lebanon's 8 governorates, lost 40% of its hospital beds.

“Attacks on healthcare on this scale cripple the healthcare system when those whose lives depend on it need it most. In addition to the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a key resource for the progress of a fragile country,” concluded Dr. Balkhy.

So far this year, between January 1, 2024 and November 18, 2024, a total of 1,246 healthcare attacks have been registered globally, in 13 countries or territories, killing 730 healthcare workers and patients and injuring 1,255.

Note to editors

Healthcare Attack Surveillance System (SSA), established in 2017 by the World Health Organization, is an independent global monitoring mechanism that aims to collect reliable data on attacks on healthcare and then identify patterns of violence that inform risk reduction and resilience measures to protect healthcare. SSA also provides an evidence base for advocacy against attacks on health care.