Type of attacks on healthcare worldwide 2024

From 2015 to 2024, over 7,690 attacks against healthcare were registered globally. As of November 2024, most of these attacks were classed as involving heavy weapons or individual weapons. During this period, the fourth most registered type of healthcare attack was psychological violence.

The yearly number of registered attacks against healthcare reveals that such attacks were especially numerous in 2022. The targeting of healthcare structures 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.

Number of reported attacks against healthcare from 2015 to 2024, by type of attack

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Release date

November 2024

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

March 2015 to November 2024

Supplementary notes

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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