In today's environment, healing institutions are no longer off limits to violence. In recent years, hospitals in several countries have been invaded by armed parties who have terrorized, kidnapped or killed staff members and patients in Afghanistan; the Central African Republic; Kiev and Crimea, Ukraine; South Sudan; and Yemen, among other places, according to an article on the Hospital & Health Networks website.

Hospitals reportedly also have been damaged recently by missiles or bombs in Syria and in Gaza. During the Biafran War in Nigeria in 1968, physician volunteers reported that Nigerian government troops intentionally targeted Biafran hospitals.

There were also incidents of hospitals, staff members and patients being attacked in Cambodia in 1975–79, Croatia in 1991 and Rwanda in 1994, among others.

In order to undertand these attacks, the article examined the lessons of documented situations.

Read the article.