WHO Warns About Attacks On Iran Health Facilities, Regional Threat

Paris: The World Health Organisation warned Friday about “multiple attacks on health” in Iran following an airstrike on a facility in Tehran, and launched an urgent appeal to aid health systems affected in the wider region.

“Multiple attacks on health have been reported in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in recent days amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.

He said the Pasteur Institute, a public health and research centre in the capital, “sustained significant damage and was rendered unable to continue delivering health services” — one of 20 facilities the WHO has confirmed as being targeted. Iranian health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour posted pictures on X on Thursday showing a heavily damaged building, with parts of the facility reduced to rubble.

Iran’s ISNA news agency reported that the “services of the Pasteur Institute of Iran have not been interrupted by these attacks”, adding that vaccine and serum production would continue. “Fortunately, none of the employees of the Pasteur Institute in Iran were harmed in the recent attacks by the United States and the Zionist regime,” it wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

The Pasteur Institute of Iran, which has no formal links with the original Pasteur Institute in Paris, is one of the oldest such facilities in Iran, having been founded in 1920. Tedros said the centre “plays an important role in protecting and promoting population health, including in emergencies”.

Beyond Iran, Tedros said the WHO was calling for urgent support for health systems affected by the conflict in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, noting the “mass displacement” of around four million people caused by the war, which has killed more than 3,000 and injured more than 30,000.

Tedros said the $30.3-million appeal to cover the period March to August would support essential health services and trauma care as well as disease surveillance and early warning systems, mass casualty management and readiness to deal with potential chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear emergencies.

The WHO cited 116 verified attacks on healthcare in the countries concerned and reported that “the escalating crisis is sharply increasing the risk of communicable disease outbreaks,” while “environmental hazards from burning oil depots, white phosphorous bombs and other weapons, compounded by rainfall, pose acute risks such as chemical burns and severe respiratory injuries.”

Targets

Israel and the United States appear to be widening their targets beyond military, security and administrative infrastructure, which were the focus of attacks during the first weeks of the war.

Health, educational and most recently transport infrastructure have been hit in the past days. Iran’s Mehr news agency, citing the Iranian Red Crescent, reported a strike on a laser and plasma research facility of the Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran on Friday.

Israel has targeted the Imam Hossein University and the Malek-Ashtar University, claiming both were being used for military research. One of Iran’s largest pharmaceutical companies, Tofigh Daru, which produces anaesthetics and cancer drugs, was attacked on Tuesday.

Tedros said the Delaram Sina Psychiatric Hospital had also sustained significant damage last Sunday. Healthcare facilities are protected locations under the Geneva Conventions, agreed as the rules of war by world powers after World War II.

The Iranian Red Crescent says 307 health, medical and emergency care facilities have been damaged to date in the war. US President Donald Trump has threatened to bomb Iran “back to the Stone Ages”, despite international law prohibiting the targeting of civilian infrastructure.

Israel repeatedly attacked hospitals in Gaza during its two-year bombardment of the territory from October 2023, claiming they were being used by operatives from the Iran-backed militant group Hamas. The United States and Israel attacked Iran on February 28, claiming the country was rushing towards developing a nuclear weapon, which Tehran has denied.