From Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine to conflicts in Afghanistan, Haiti, Myanmar and Sudan, attacking healthcare centres has become a new worrying trend, Al Jazeera quotes World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as saying.

So far in 2024, the WHO has confirmed more than 1,200 attacks on healthcare across multiple countries, according to Tedros.

“Over the past three years we have seen an increase in the frequency, scale and impact of attacks on healthcare,” he said in a video statement.

Without accountability for such attacks, they will continue,“ Tedros warned. “The best medicine is peace.”

According to Al Jazeera, since WHO started monitoring such incidents in 2018, there have been more than 7,600 attacks on healthcare verified in 21 countries and territories, with more than 2,600 health workers and patients killed and 5,400 injured.