BALADI NEWS
Attacks on civilian hospitals in Syria have intensified in recent weeks, as efforts to deescalate the conflict between the Syrian regime and rebel forces in Idlib province—the last remaining rebel stronghold—fall apart.
Such attacks are illegal under international law. But observers say the strategy is sometimes used to intimidate local populations—effectively making daily life untenable, forcing either a mass exodus or a surrender by the opposition.
The sometimes makeshift hospitals typically report their coordinate to the United Nations, which then shares those coordinates with all sides of the conflict. The expectation is that the warring parties will avoid bombing those areas.
But in the Syrian conflict, which has dragged on for more than eight years now, fighters have regularly targeted civilian hospitals. It’s such a dire problem, some hospitals have stopped reporting their coordinates and are now operating underground. Others, UN relief chief Mark Lowcock said in a briefing, have simply closed down.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), a nonprofit, has been tracking and verifying attacks on civilian hospitals in Syria since the conflict began. The organization has an interactive version of the below map on its website.
Rayan Koteiche, a researcher with PHR, said that only about 30% to 40% of the initial reports pass the verification process and make it on the map. Still, they have confirmed some 573 attacks on medical facilities since the war began.
“We’re seeing blatant attacks on de-conflicted areas, repeated attacks on the same spaces, and even on isolated facilities, all meant to disable medical operations to inflict as much pressure on the civilian population as possible,” he said about the recent attacks. “The consequences are going to be catastrophic.”
Source: Quartz News.