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150 years of humanitarian action: Health care in danger

30-07-2013 Photo gallery

Ambulances attacked or obstructed, health-care workers threatened or targeted, all while the wounded and sick lie dying, deprived of life-saving care. How many times has this happened in the last 150 years? These photos depict violence against health-care facilities and staff, and illustrate just how difficult it is to provide medical care in times of war. Even today, people sometimes refuse the medical treatment they need because they fear being attacked on the way to hospital.

  • Second World War, United Kingdom. A paediatric clinic after a bombing raid.
    • Second World War, United Kingdom. A paediatric clinic after a bombing raid.
      © British Red Cross / hist-01336
  • Libya, 2011. The main operating theatre of a hospital in ruins after sustained bombardment.
    • Libya, 2011. The main operating theatre of a hospital in ruins after sustained bombardment.
      © ICRC / André Liohn / ly-e-00318
  • Lebanon, 1983. Ambulance damaged in cross-fire during fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
    • Lebanon, 1983. Ambulance damaged in cross-fire during fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces.
      © ICRC / B. Hubschmid / lb-d-00078-18
  • Somalia, 2012. Ambulance being redirected at military checkpoint.
    • Somalia, 2012. Ambulance being redirected at military checkpoint.
      © ICRC / A. Liohn
  • Russia, 1942. Medical care on the front line.
    • Russia, 1942. Medical care on the front line.
      © ICRC / Ria Novosti
  • Israel and the occupied territories, 2011. Palestine Red Crescent paramedics tending to the wounded.
  • Thailand, 1980. Evacuating the wounded after their villages on the border with Viet Nam had been shelled.
  • El Salvador, 1987.An evacuation during the Salvadoran civil war.
  • Afghanistan, 2010. Taxis are used to take people to hospital when there is no ambulance service.
  • Rwanda, 1994. An ICRC field hospital set up to treat survivors of the genocide.
  • Pakistan, 2009. Field surgical hospital for people wounded during the fighting in the region.
  • Syria, 2012. Surgeons at work in a private residence doubling as a makeshift hospital.
  • Haiti, 2009. This twenty-five-year-old Red Cross volunteer was shot in the mouth while working in a violent shanty town. Undeterred, he continues to work in that shanty town, helping to evacuate the sick.
  • Afghanistan, 2010. It took four days for this mother to reach one of the few hospitals where her child, suffering from severe diarrhoea, could be treated. The condition of the child had worsened considerably by the time they reached the hospital.

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