On 17th Sep 2019, Turkey and Russia agreed to create a demilitarised buffer zone in Idlib province. However, this agreement was not able to avoid the medical facilities from the hostile activities, and according to the datasets, more than 20 attacks were conducted against the medical facilities and personnel since that date, more than 95% conducted by Syrian Regime or Russian forces, and around 4% by HTS, around 79% of these attacks conducted through Airstrikes and 17% through indirect fire including artillery and missiles. Idlib province obviously received majority of these attacks.
It is important and vital to keep in mind the significant impact of such attacks not only in the framework of a military operation, but also from a humanitarian and ethical point of view especially while COVID-19 affecting the capacity of the health sector significantly and affecting the the prioritising mechanism of the medical staffs response during the ongoing crisis.
Over the past years, hospitals and medical facilities across Syria have been attacked hundreds of times. Data analysed and illustrated by InformaGENE in their reports, indicate that these attacks formed part of a larger strategy to affect access to medical facilities in opposition-controlled areas as well as a representation of additional constrains and threats over the medical facilities and staff.
The reports are available on the left.