Attacks on healthcare worldwide 2024

From March 2015 to November 2024, at least 7,693 attacks against healthcare were registered worldwide. As of November 2024, there were 1,234 attacks targeting healthcare this year. According to the World Health Organization, from 2015 to 2024, the highest annual number of attacks was recorded in 2022.

The targeting of healthcare availability, access, and delivery has become part of the strategy and tactics of modern warfare. The geographical distribution of healthcare attacks reveals that two countries or territories had predominantly been targeted. As of November 2024, a significant amount of attacks took place in the occupied Palestinian territories, followed by Ukraine. The types of healthcare attacks recorded across the globe especially involve the use of individual and heavy weapons.

Number of attacks reported annually against healthcare worldwide from 2015 to 2024

Characteristic	Number of attacks
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Release date

November 2024

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

January 2015 to November 2024

Supplementary notes

*As of November 14, 2024.

The World Health Organization defines attack on healthcare as "any act of verbal or physical violence or obstruction or threat of violence that interferes with the availability, access and delivery of curative and/or preventive health services during emergencies. The nature and types of attacks vary across contexts and can range from violence with heavy weapons to psychological threats or intimidation".

Each reported attack is assigned a level of certainty by a designated WHO staff member which conveys a level of confidence that the reported attack has occurred. The level of certainty applies to whether the attack occurred, but does NOT apply to the detailed data about the attack.

To maintain accuracy of WHO-reported data, the SSA verification method assigns increasing levels of certainty based on the amount of data that is available and the supporting evidence. There are four levels of confidence: “rumour”, “possible”, “probable”, and “confirmed”. Any report assigned the level “rumour” is not published on the SSA dashboard. The criteria for determining the level of certainty of an attack is based on the sources of information available to triangulate the data.

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