Iranian medical staff hold posters of slain Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during their protest in front of the destroyed Gandhi Hospital in Tehran. AFP
Staff waved Iranian flags in solidarity, voicing outrage over attacks on hospitals, ambulances, and medical centers nationwide.
The Gandhi Hotel Hospital was hit just a day after the US and Israel launched their war against Iran last week.
The World Health Organization said the hospital had been evacuated after nearby explosions, and witnesses told Reuters that Israeli strikes had struck the facility.
Gandhi Hotel-Hospital in Tehran is a comprehensive private medical complex offering advanced diagnostic and treatment services, with a particular focus on cancer care, complex surgeries, and medical tourism.
The facility includes specialized clinics in cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, urology, and ENT, as well as a dedicated fertility (IVF) center.
Mohammad Raeiszadeh, head of Iran’s Medical Council, told state media that the hospital’s IVF department was destroyed in the strike.
Since the start of the war, Iranian authorities reported four health workers killed and 25 injured, with no patient deaths, and major hospitals were evacuated safely.
“WHO has verified 13 attacks on healthcare in Iran and one in Lebanon,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Thursday.
Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, said hospitals across the country had faced “indiscriminate attacks.”
A spokesperson for Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a “blatant war crime,” while Tedros described the incident as “extremely worrying,” noting that “health facilities are protected under international humanitarian law.”
Immediately after the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran last week, an airstrike on a girls' primary school in Minab killed all 168 pupils and 19 teachers.
Non-stop American-Israeli airstrikes on the country have killed more than 1,332 Iranians since the launch of the war last weekend.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Médecins Sans Frontières, and WHO warned that the escalating situation threatens to collapse already fragile healthcare systems in the region.
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