Impact of attacks on healthcare worldwide 2023

From 2015 to 2022, over 4,735 attacks against healthcare were registered globally. During this period, most of these attacks impacted healthcare personnel and facilities. 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 May 2023, many attacks took place in the occupied Palestinian territories (i.e., the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem), followed by Ukraine. The types of healthcare attacks recorded across the globe involve especially the use of individual and heavy weapons.

Number of reported attacks against healthcare worldwide from 2015 to 2023, by impact or target

Characteristic	Number of attacks
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Release date

May 2023

More information

Region

Worldwide

Survey time period

March 2015 to May 2023

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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