Syria: Violence Against Health Care in Conflict 2025 [EN/AR]

August 25, 2026 - 07:20

A new analysis of violence against health care in Syria during 2025 paints a grim picture of continued and even intensifying attacks on medical facilities, workers, and patients. The report, released jointly by Insecurity Insight and Safeguarding Health in Conflict, documents hundreds of separate incidents across the country over the past year, highlighting a persistent breakdown in the protection of medical services in a conflict that has now entered its second decade.

The findings show that attacks were not limited to front-line combat zones. While areas of active fighting in the northwest and northeast saw the highest numbers of incidents, the analysis also recorded significant violence against health care in regions nominally under government control. The types of incidents range from airstrikes and shelling hitting hospitals and clinics to the looting of medical supplies, the detention of health workers, and the deliberate blocking of ambulances and medical convoys. In many cases, the report notes, the same facility was struck multiple times over the course of the year, forcing it to shut down permanently and leaving entire communities without access to even basic emergency care.

The report also details the secondary effects of this violence. When hospitals are damaged or destroyed, patients with chronic conditions like diabetes or kidney failure lose access to regular treatment. Pregnant women face dangerous journeys to reach the nearest functioning maternity ward. And the constant threat of attack has driven many skilled doctors and nurses to flee the country, draining Syria's health system of its most experienced professionals. The authors stress that these attacks are not random collateral damage but often follow a pattern that suggests deliberate targeting, a violation of international humanitarian law. The report calls for immediate, concrete steps to protect medical neutrality and for accountability for those who order or carry out such attacks.