A total of 1,981 people were killed in 2025, including health personnel and patients, due to attacks on health facilities in armed conflicts, double the number in 2024, due to states “increasingly evading their obligation to respect international humanitarian law” in conflicts, according to a report by Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
The work, titled , collects data that shows that the number of health personnel and patients killed by these attacks reached record levels in 2025, as a result of “not protecting the facilities, staff or patients.”
“This change reflects a prioritization of military needs over the obligation to protect civilians and mitigate harm to the civilian population,” denounced Erik Laan, MSF political advocacy expert in a note from this organization.
In 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a total of 1,348 attacks against medical facilities that caused the death of those 1,981 people (medical workers, humanitarian workers and patients). This figure multiplies by two the 944 deaths in 2024.
Sudan was the most affected country, with 1,620 people killed, followed by Myanmar with 148, Palestine with 125, Syria with 41 and Ukraine with 19.
Almost ten years after one that condemned attacks on healthcare and called for an end to impunity, these military actions are reaching record levels.
“The warring parties have mistakenly changed the narrative from the attacks to a justification that medical facilities and humanitarian personnel have lost the protection afforded them under International Humanitarian Law (IHL),” Laan said.
Some attacks may be due, the report explains, to taking advantage of ambiguities in the law. Consequently, the burden of responsibility shifts: instead of automatically being considered civilian and therefore protected, communities and healthcare facilities must now demonstrate that they are not military targets.
The Al Shifa hospital, seriously destroyed in Gaza City, in an image released by MSF.
Services closed
Violence against medical and humanitarian care causes the closure of essential medical services and the withdrawal of humanitarian organizations, “which cuts off access to health care for communities that often have no alternatives,” stressed Raquel González, MSF Spain coordinator.
“People living in conflict zones are already affected by violence, and the loss of medical care makes their lives even more unbearable,” he warned.
“People living in conflict zones are already affected by violence, and the loss of medical care makes their lives even more unbearable”
In 2024, the latest data available from the Coalition for Health Protection in Conflict alliance documented 3,623 incidents against healthcare, 15% more than in 2023 and 62% more than in 2022.
Furthermore, between 2021 and 2025, 1,241 locally recruited staff were killed, 1,006 were injured and 604 were kidnapped worldwide.
These data represent 98% of all humanitarian workers killed, 96% of those injured, and 94% of those kidnapped.
