Iranian Hospitals Under Siege: Wounded Protesters and Medics Targeted in Crackdown
In a stark escalation of its crackdown on nationwide unrest, Iranian authorities are systematically targeting the country's healthcare system, with security forces raiding hospitals to detain wounded protesters and arresting doctors who provide them care, according to multiple human rights organizations. The tactics have effectively eroded the protected status of medical facilities, creating a climate of fear that is keeping the injured from seeking life-saving treatment.
Activists report that security forces have killed thousands and wounded many more by firing directly into crowds, often using birdshot—a type of ammunition that scatters metal pellets deep into victims' bodies, requiring surgical removal. Now, the crackdown has moved from the streets into the wards. Groups including Amnesty International and the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) have documented security raids on hospitals in provinces such as Isfahan, where staff have been ordered to report patients with gunshot or pellet wounds.
"We are witnessing grave violations of medical neutrality and international law," said a spokesperson for CHRI. "Hospitals are being transformed from sanctuaries into hunting grounds." The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed reports of at least five doctors being detained while treating injured patients, prompting its Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to voice "deep concern."
The human cost is visceral. The Norway-based group Iran Human Rights (IHR) investigated the case of Sajad Rahimi, 36, who was shot with live ammunition during a protest in Fars province on January 9. Fearing a "coup de grace" by security forces at a hospital, his friends delayed taking him for care. By the time he was admitted, it was too late. "The doctor said that if he had arrived just ten minutes earlier, he would probably have survived," his brother told IHR.
In a contradictory move, Iran's Health Ministry this week issued a public statement carried by state TV, urging the injured to seek hospital care and "not worry." This official stance rings hollow against documented cases of arrests within medical centers. In one instance highlighted by the Hengaw rights group, Dr. Ali Reza Golchini from Qazvin was arrested solely "for providing medical care to injured protesters."
The campaign of intimidation extends to victims' families. Hengaw detailed the case of 12-year-old Taher Malekshahi, a Kurdish-Iranian boy from Qorveh who was shot in the face and eyes with pellets, losing one eye and suffering severe damage to the other. Authorities have allegedly pressured his family to falsely claim he was wounded by "terrorists" in exchange for state benefits.
Analysis: This systematic targeting of healthcare represents a strategic tightening of the state's response. By instilling fear in both medical providers and the wounded, authorities aim to sever a critical lifeline for protesters, physically isolate the injured from networks of care, and obscure the true casualty figures. The international medical community, including the World Medical Association, has condemned these actions as clear breaches of medical ethics.
Reader Reactions:
Dr. Anahita Farhoudi, Medical Ethicist (Toronto): "This is a catastrophic breach of the fundamental principle of medical neutrality enshrined in the Geneva Conventions. When healers become targets and hospitals become battlegrounds, the social contract is utterly broken. The international community must demand accountability."
Marcus Thorne, Political Analyst (London): "The regime's strategy is twofold: to quell dissent through sheer terror and to control the narrative by preventing independent documentation of casualties. The hospital raids are a logical, if brutal, extension of this information war."
Ramin Jahan, Expatriate Businessman (Dubai): "The government's statement telling people to go to hospitals is a cruel joke. Everyone inside Iran knows the risks. They are weaponizing healthcare. My own cousin, a doctor, is now too frightened to treat certain emergency cases. It's a moral collapse."
Elena Rodriguez, Student Activist (Berlin): "This is state-sanctioned barbarism, plain and simple. Targeting children, arresting doctors—what's next? The silence from certain global powers is complicity. The world cannot look away while a regime murders its people and then hunts them in their hospital beds."