The deliberate destruction of health services and systems as an act of war should be termed 'healthocide' and medical practitioners should call out and stand firm against this weaponization of healthcare, insists a thought-provoking commentary published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health.

Silence implies complicity and approval, and undermines international humanitarian law as well as medical and professional ethics, say Dr. Joelle Abi-Rached and colleagues of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Although they refer to other conflicts in El Salvador, Ukraine, Sudan, and Syria, the authors focus primarily on the impact of armed conflict on healthcare in Lebanon and Gaza. 

Data from Lebanon's Ministry of Public Health show that between 8 October 2023 and 27 January 2025, 217 healthcare workers were killed by the Israel Defense Forces; 177 ambulances were damaged; 68 attacks on hospitals were recorded; and 237 attacks on emergency medical services took place, they say.