Health Authority condemns targeting of hospitals in Sheikh Maqsoud, calls for urgent international intervention

The Health Authority of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria condemned the repeated bombing of Martyr Khaled Fajr Hospital and other health facilities in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo. In a statement, the Authority described the attacks as a war crime and a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.

The statement was read by the Co-Chair of the Health Authority of North and East Syria, Tulin Hammo, in Arabic, and by the Co-Chair of the Authority, Muhammad Nour Shabab, in English, in front of the Health Authority building in Raqqa.

The statement read: “For the fifth consecutive day, the densely populated civilian neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh have been transformed into an open battlefield, where various types of weapons, including heavy weapons, are being used in a dangerous military escalation that threatens the lives of tens of thousands of civilians and constitutes a flagrant violation of the principles of international humanitarian law, which stipulate the protection of civilians during armed conflicts.”

The statement, issued on behalf of the administrative and medical staff and all healthcare workers in North and East Syria, condemned the deliberate and repeated shelling of the Martyr Khaled Fajr Hospital in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, which has been targeted more than four times. This constitutes a clear crime and a grave and blatant violation of international humanitarian law and all relevant international conventions and norms.

The statement explained that the repeated targeting of the hospital, at close intervals, definitively demonstrates that this shelling is deliberate and systematic, aimed at permanently disabling the hospital. It is worth noting that this is the central and primary hospital providing medical services to the residents of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood, a densely populated area already suffering from extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

The statement revealed that this deliberate bombing resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a number of healthcare workers while they were performing their humanitarian duty. This constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, particularly the Fourth Convention and its additional protocols, which explicitly stipulate the protection of medical facilities and personnel at all times.

The statement added that this targeting comes within the context of a suffocating and systematic siege imposed for many months on the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods. Fuel and essential supplies, especially medicines and medical equipment, have been prevented from entering, leading to the collapse of the healthcare system and depriving civilians of their fundamental right to healthcare.

The statement further noted that the intense hostilities and ongoing military offensive are preventing doctors, nurses, and paramedics from reaching the two neighborhoods and hindering them from carrying out their professional and humanitarian duties. This constitutes a direct violation of the principle of facilitating access for medical personnel and ensuring their unhindered operation, a fundamental principle guaranteed under international humanitarian law.

The statement highlighted the crimes committed by mercenaries of the interim government in the Ashrafieh neighborhood, adding: "The extrajudicial execution of the director of Othman Hospital, the martyr Adnan Othman, and his nephew, the pharmacist Ali Othman, who remained at the hospital to protect it and serve the patients, was carried out. This hospital was built and managed by them through their own efforts."

The statement emphasized that the ongoing attacks on the two neighborhoods have forced all hospitals and health centers, both public and private, to cease operations, including the private hospitals in the Ashrafieh neighborhood. This has resulted in a near-total paralysis of medical services for the civilian population.

The statement also warned that the lives of more than seventy wounded women, children, men, and elderly people inside the targeted Martyr Khaled Fajr Hospital, in addition to a large number of other wounded and injured people outside the hospital, are in real and immediate danger due to the intense and indiscriminate shelling. With hospitals out of service and a severe shortage of medical personnel and supplies, a humanitarian and health catastrophe is imminent.

The statement affirmed that all international laws and conventions, including the Geneva Conventions and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, emphasize the necessity of protecting civilians, safeguarding civilian objects, and ensuring special protection for medical facilities and their personnel.

The statement, issued "on behalf of healthcare workers in North and East Syria," condemned "all war crimes and grave violations committed against civilians and healthcare facilities," holding the perpetrators and their supporters fully legally and morally responsible for these crimes. It also categorically denied "the lies and allegations being circulated that all civilian patients and wounded individuals had been expelled from Martyr Khaled Fajr Hospital and that it had been converted into a military post, as all live footage documenting the hospital's operations proves the falsity of these claims."

The statement concluded with an urgent appeal to the United Nations, the Security Council, the World Health Organization, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and all international human rights, humanitarian, and health organizations, as well as to states and influential powers involved in the Syrian issue, to break their silence, assume their legal and moral responsibilities, and take immediate and effective measures to halt the war machine and put an end to the indiscriminate and deliberate bombing crimes targeting residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, especially hospitals and health facilities.

ANHA