WHO denounces the murder of 2 doctors in attacks on health facilities in Al-Suwayda

Geneva.- Two doctors have been killed in the five attacks on local healthcare during the violence recorded in the southern Syrian province of Al Sueida, denounced this Friday the representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in that country, Christina Bethke.

These attacks on the healthcare network have also included temporary occupations of hospitals and obstruction of the passage of ambulances, Bethke pointed out in a press conference via telematics from Damascus for the press accredited to the UN in Geneva.

Read more: OMSA announces special schedule during Holy Week

The representative in Syria added that she has no information about the perpetrators of the attacks, noting that the WHO’s mission is to monitor this type of aggression in conflicts, not their subsequent investigation. “Healthcare can never be a target of attacks, in fact, facilities, patients, and healthcare workers must be protected, it is a responsibility under international law that all parties must assume,” he emphasized. Bethke added that humanitarian access to Al-Suwayda remains very limited, although two aid convoys were able to enter the conflict zone on July 20 and 23, in an operation coordinated by the Syrian Ministry of Health and the Red Crescent. The WHO representative recalled that the escalation of violence in the province has caused 145,000 displaced persons, “many of them forced to leave their homes with nothing” to take shelter in makeshift accommodations in Daraa (west of Al Sueida) or Damascus (north). The WHO has assisted mobile teams deployed to provide assistance to these displaced people, while within Al Sueida “health facilities are under intense pressure”, with problems of electricity supply and lack of staff, Bethke assured. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights raised to 1,339 the number of deaths from the outbreak of violence in Al-Suwayda on Wednesday, including 196 victims of extrajudicial killings. Clashes erupted on July 13 between Bedouin clans and groups from the Druze minority, who later also clashed with government troops when they were sent to the region to try to regain control.