Using data collected by Insecurity Insight, the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition (SHCC) identified 74 incidents of violence against or obstruction of health care in Syria in 2025. Among the incidents, 22 health workers were killed, 21 arrested and ten kidnapped.
The actual number of incidents and the severity of the problem are likely greater, because attacks on health care may not have been reported in some locations and conflict-related health service closures may not have been reflected in the data.
Key findings:
- In 2025, reported violence against or obstruction of health care was spread over 12 governorates – four more than in 2024 – with incidents continuing in Aleppo that accounted for a third of cases, which was consistent with previous years. Other locations of incidents shifted from predominantly Al-Hasakah, Deir ez-Zor, and Idlib governorates in 2024 to a surge in Sweida, Tartous and Latakia in 2025, where ethnic conflicts were reported.
- Health worker arrests and kidnappings increased, killings persisted, and damage to or the destruction of health facilities continued, but at lower levels than previous years during the civil war.
- Multiple conflict parties were named in recorded incidents: Turkish forces and the anti-regime SDF continued to be implicated in attacks on health care in Syria in 2025, mainly in Aleppo, while such incidents were most frequently reported in Al-Hasakah in 2024. Syrian interim government forces arrested health workers and violently raided health facilities, while former regime forces were linked to hospital attacks in Latakia and Tartous during armed violence in these areas on March 7-8. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) air strikes killed three first responders in Dar’aa, while Israeli ground forces detained four health workers providing first aid to a patient in Quneitra.