Albares reports that attacks against medical facilities caused nearly 2,000 deaths in Sudan, Palestine, and Ukraine in 2025

Eduardo González Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares reported on Monday that, despite the ten years that have passed since the first international condemnation of attacks against healthcare personnel and medical facilities in armed conflicts, 1,348 attacks against medical facilities were recorded in 2025 alone, resulting in the deaths of nearly 2,000 people, including healthcare workers and patients, in conflict-ridden countries such as Sudan, Palestine, and Ukraine. “The tenth anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2286 is a historic milestone in the defense of international humanitarian law, and especially in the protection of medical and healthcare personnel and facilities in armed conflicts,” but, “unfortunately, it is a very topical issue,” the minister stated during the opening of the event “The Protection of Medical Missions on the Tenth Anniversary of Resolution 2286,” held at the Ministry headquarters on Marqués de Salamanca Street in Madrid. “Spain championed this resolution,” which “arose from the outcry of the international community in the face of systematic attacks against hospitals, health centers, ambulances, and healthcare professionals,” he continued. “This resolution was adopted unanimously, sponsored by 85 countries, and aimed to create a firm commitment to ensuring that medical missions are never targeted in war. However, ten years later, we see with deep concern that this commitment is not being honored,” he warned. “In places like Sudan, Palestine, and Ukraine, the resolution has been reduced to a mere declaration of intent, and the data from the World Health Organization and humanitarian organizations like Doctors Without Borders are conclusive,” he denounced. “Hundreds of healthcare professionals have lost their lives in recent years in Sudan, Myanmar, Palestine, Ukraine, and other conflict contexts we could list,” he continued. “Last year alone,” he asserted, “there were 1,348 attacks against medical facilities that resulted in the deaths of nearly 2,000 people, including healthcare workers and patients.” According to the minister, “these are not collateral damage: let’s be clear, these are deliberate and increasingly frequent attacks against the civilian population and the infrastructure that sustains their survival.” “The destruction of hospitals and healthcare facilities is, without a doubt, one of the cruelest forms of violence,” because “it not only causes immediate casualties, condemns thousands of people to live without basic medical care, hinders recovery after conflicts, erodes trust in institutions, and obstructs reconciliation and peace,” he insisted. “War against civilian infrastructure is a war directly against civilians,” and to “prevent and avoid these attacks, Resolution 2286 requires states to review military procedures, ensure the identification of healthcare facilities, train their armed forces in international humanitarian law, and independently investigate attacks, but the reality is that impunity remains the norm,” Albares warned. “Investigations into attacks against medical missions are often scarce and, in many cases, completely nonexistent; those responsible are rarely brought to justice, and the use of new technologies, especially low-cost drones, multiplies the number of civilian victims,” he denounced. Furthermore, “the Security Council, paralyzed by mutual vetoes, is not fulfilling its oversight role, and without accountability, there will be no real protection for the medical mission,” he insisted. “The humanitarian principles of neutrality, impartiality, humanity, and independence are being called into question, and medical and healthcare workers are increasingly stigmatized and even, at times, as we have seen in Gaza, criminalized,” Albares asserted. He denounced, in this regard, the existence of “a public discourse that sometimes even justifies attacks against healthcare infrastructure, sometimes in the name of military necessity, and at other times in open contradiction with the humanitarian principles of proportionality, precaution, and restraint.”

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