The armed conflicts in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon are fine examples of War against Humanity and Human Rights as hospitals and educational institutions have suffered severe damage. Following the waves of bomb and missile attacks, various hospitals in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon lie in ruins, with shattered structures visible in their surroundings.

On December 25, 2025 and in early January 2026, over 200 medical students and doctors gathered at the heavily damaged Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City to celebrate their graduation amid the ruins of the enclave’s largest medical complex. The event is widely considered as a powerful symbol of resilience, as Al-Shifa has emerged as a stark symbol of utter devastation. Hence, the concerned authorities honoured students who completed their medical training while surviving and providing care under extreme conditions, including famine, displacement and bloody conflict.

Neither (US President Donald) Trump nor (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has bothered to explain why their actions have led to significant civilian casualties, including children, in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon. Rather, they have ensured that the next several generations will be unable to rise by systematically razing various hospitals and educational institutions, launching lethal attacks on children, doctors, health workers, aid personnel and blocking the delivery of relief supplies.

The Aid Worker Security Report 2025 by Humanitarian Outcomes highlights a dangerous, record-breaking surge in violence against humanitarians, with 265 aid workers killed by August 14, 2025. Driven by conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, attacks on staff – primarily national personnel – reached new peaks in 2024 and 2025, largely due to diminished respect for international law and increased targeting in war zones. As per the report, 2024 was the deadliest year on record, with 383 aid workers killed, a 31% increase from the 293 deaths in 2023. Also, 308 people were seriously injured in 2024, while 125 were abducted and at least 45 were detained. The trend continued in 2025, as 265 were killed in the first eight months of that year. The number has increased the most in Gaza, followed by Sudan, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Syria and Ukraine.

According to the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) 2024 Report, 3,623 incidents of attacks on or interference with healthcare occurred across 36 countries, a 15% increase from 2023. This surge reflects a 62% rise since 2022, with intense violence in Sudan, occupied Palestinian territory, Myanmar, Ukraine and Lebanon. Gaza topped the list, with 1,361 incidents, 22% higher than in 2023.

What is far more important is the changing mindset of various aggressive states. History confirms that the protection of medical personnel and relief workers during armed conflicts is a cornerstone of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), established to ensure that humanity is not entirely lost during war. While breaches occur, the Geneva Conventions and customary international law explicitly require that medical personnel, units and transports be respected, and protected. Now, world powers no longer consider the blocking of aid and attacks on aid workers to be war crimes. They act as if protections offered by the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) do not exist.

On January 20, 2025, President Trump, immediately upon taking office, issued an executive order, implementing a 90-day freeze on nearly all new funding for US foreign assistance programmes. Subsequently, the funding was drastically reduced. It may be noted that the US has historically been the world’s largest donor of foreign aid in total dollars. In 2023, it provided roughly USD 62 billion in assistance, surpassing the combined total of the next three largest donors.

Israel’s rationale behind the series of horrific attacks on hospitals and educational institutions (especially schools) is clear: Hamas uses these buildings as hideouts. On February 28, 2026 (the first day of the Iran-US War), a missile strike destroyed the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab, killing over 170 people, mostly children. Evidence indicates that it was a US Tomahawk missile that hit the girls’ primary school near an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) base. The attack has been described as one of the deadliest targeting of civilians in the 2026 conflict, with UNESCO condemning the strike as a grave violation of international law.

On March 16, 2026, Afghan officials claimed that a Pakistani airstrike hit the Omid Addiction Treatment Hospital in Kabul, killing at least 400 people and wounding over 250, primarily drug rehabilitation patients. As expected, Pakistan denied the allegations, stating that their strikes targeted militant infrastructure in Kabul and Nangarhar, and not civilians.

Interestingly, a concerted effort to minimise civilian casualties on the battlefield was undertaken in the US during the Presidency of Joseph ‘Joe’ Robinette Biden Jr. The US Department of Defence (DoD) launched the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan (CHMR-AP) on August 25, 2022, aimed at improving how the military prevents, mitigates and responds to civilian harm during military operations or armed conflicts. Wes J Bryant, the former US Air Force combat veteran and Pentagon whistleblower, served as a senior adviser/consultant focussed on mitigating civilian harm. He was part of a specialised Pentagon unit aimed at civilian protection before being forced out during government cuts.

However, current Defence Secretary Peter Brian Hegseth has led a highly aggressive shift in US military strategy, emphasising rapid, kinetic operations and a warrior ethos. Hence, the list of targets pursued by President Trump and his advisers has expanded significantly across foreign, economic and domestic fronts.

General Stanley Allen McChrystal won significant respect and popularity among Afghan officials and some segments of the population during his command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan in 2008-10, largely because of a shift in strategy that emphasised reducing civilian casualties and showing empathy. He reportedly said: “For every innocent person you kill, you create 10 new enemies.“

After the February 28, 2026 US strike on girls’ primary school in Minab, the Iranian state media released images of the graves and funeral processions, with Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi sharing photos on social media and accusing the US and Israel of targeting innocent children. This very same image is being painted across the globe, right now, ceaselessly.

Meanwhile,

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das