Over the weekend, the Syrian government of Bashar Al Assad returned to one of its preferred methods of conducting warfare – bombing hospitals.
On Saturday evening, regime warplanes carried out airstrikes on a hospital in the town of Afrin, which is under rebel control, killing 13 people and wounding 11, per initial reports by an NGO involved in running the facility. Two nurses were killed, as were two ambulance workers, and a midwife was in critical condition – essential workers of the sort venerated around the world these days, who have become targets for the Syrian government. The two missiles hit the emergency and the labour and delivery wards of the hospital, which has been put out of service and evacuated.
Ironically, this latest crime followed a flabbergasting election last month that saw Syria elevated to the executive board of the World Health Organisation for a three-year term, despite a decade of impunity, bombing hospitals, targeting medical workers, destroying ambulances and killing first responders with so-called "double-tap" strikes. This latest bombing highlights what the Syrian government thinks of the concepts of a rules-based international order and impunity in violating the tenets of international law and the norms of warfare.
Read More from Kareem Shaheen
Syria has systematically targeted health facilities as a weapon of war from the early years of the revolution-turned-civil war, a strategy that amounts to committing war crimes and may also be a crime against humanity.
The evidence for this is catalogued in countless videos and archival footage, testimony, survivor accounts, independent UN reports, investigative journalism, open-source investigations, and other methods. I visited one such destroyed hospital during a trip to Syria in 2017, and it was a disorienting and disturbing experience. The facility was built into the side of a hill to protect it against airstrikes, but had nevertheless been put out of commission by over half a dozen missile strikes because it was treating chemical attack victims. I spent plenty of time in hospitals as a child because both of my parents were doctors, and the rhythmic orderliness of the wards felt a world away as shattered glass crunched underneath my feet, medicine was strewn on the floor, and the bright white lights were replaced with an enveloping darkness.
The NGO Physicians for Human Rights, which tracks attacks on healthcare facilities worldwide, has documented 595 attacks on at least 350 medical facilities throughout Syria since the start of the conflict in 2011, and a whopping 540 of them, or 90 per cent of all bombings, were carried out by the Syrian military, Russia, and allied forces. At least 930 medical workers have been killed over the course of the war – in the bombings themselves as well as by torture or extrajudicial killings. Once again, the Syrian government and its allies had the lion’s share of the abuses, with 827 of the killings, or 89 per cent, carried out by them.
This systematic destruction of people and facilities whose role is to provide succour and healing amid the endless bloodshed was not even carried out because of military or tactical expediency – the war crimes were enshrined into law. In 2012, the government designated medical facilities in opposition-controlled areas as legitimate military targets as part of an anti-terrorism law. Most regimes that commit atrocities and abuses of this scale at least seek to obscure their role in carrying them out or deny the fact that they even happened. Not the Syrian regime – it is happy to signal its premeditation and intent before committing war crimes, confident in its estimation that the world will do nothing about it.
It is probably past time for the world to do anything about it. In fact, Syria has been given membership of the executive board of the world’s global public health body.
But we must not lose sight of the broader implications of these crimes and what they do to our collective humanity and sense of decency and their impact on the conduct of war in the future. International norms are simply that – norms that we all agree to uphold. These norms can be replaced by new norms if they become obsolete.
If the world at large decides that bombing hospitals is against international norms and customs, that norm is only valid for as long as it is upheld. If we do not uphold it, bombing hospitals in war becomes the norm, and is deployed with greater impunity in the next major conflict because it ceases to shock and outrage our collective conscience. As these norms are eroded, so does our collective sense of morality.
For every doctor, nurse, paramedic, man, woman and child killed in these endless hospital bombings, we all lose a piece of our humanity.
Kareem Shaheen is a veteran Middle East correspondent in Canada and a columnist for The National
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
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A cryptocurrency primer for beginners
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List of officials:
Referees: Chris Broad, David Boon, Jeff Crowe, Andy Pycroft, Ranjan Madugalle and Richie Richardson.
Umpires: Aleem Dar, Kumara Dharmasena, Marais Erasmus, Chris Gaffaney, Ian Gould, Richard Illingworth, Richard Kettleborough, Nigel Llong, Bruce Oxenford, Ruchira Palliyaguruge, Sundaram Ravi, Paul Reiffel, Rod Tucker, Michael Gough, Joel Wilson and Paul Wilson.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
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Price: From Dh149,900
Hotel Data Cloud profile
Date started: June 2016
Founders: Gregor Amon and Kevin Czok
Based: Dubai
Sector: Travel Tech
Size: 10 employees
Funding: $350,000 (Dh1.3 million)
Investors: five angel investors (undisclosed except for Amar Shubar)
THE BIO
Favourite car: Koenigsegg Agera RS or Renault Trezor concept car.
Favourite book: I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Biggest inspiration: My husband Nik. He really got me through a lot with his positivity.
Favourite holiday destination: Being at home in Australia, as I travel all over the world for work. It’s great to just hang out with my husband and family.
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If you go
The flights
Etihad (etihad.com) flies from Abu Dhabi to Luang Prabang via Bangkok, with a return flight from Chiang Rai via Bangkok for about Dh3,000, including taxes. Emirates and Thai Airways cover the same route, also via Bangkok in both directions, from about Dh2,700.
The cruise
The Gypsy by Mekong Kingdoms has two cruising options: a three-night, four-day trip upstream cruise or a two-night, three-day downstream journey, from US$5,940 (Dh21,814), including meals, selected drinks, excursions and transfers.
The hotels
Accommodation is available in Luang Prabang at the Avani, from $290 (Dh1,065) per night, and at Anantara Golden Triangle Elephant Camp and Resort from $1,080 (Dh3,967) per night, including meals, an activity and transfers.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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