Iranian hospitals are running out of critical medical supplies as U.S.-Israeli military strikes, now in their third day, continue to damage healthcare infrastructure across the country. As of March 2, 2026, seven medical facilities have been hit, at least two emergency medical personnel have been killed, and a pharmaceutical system already buckling under renewed sanctions is being pushed toward collapse. The compounding effect of physical destruction and supply chain disruption is creating a healthcare crisis that threatens millions of Iranian patients who depend on consistent access to medication for conditions like cancer, epilepsy, and other chronic diseases. The situation at Gandhi Hospital in northern Tehran illustrates the severity.
A projectile struck a nearby area with enough force to destroy the hospital’s entire in-vitro fertilization department, along with all its equipment. Staff scrambled to relocate cells and embryos, according to Mohammad Raeiszadeh, head of Iran’s Medical Council. This is not an isolated incident. From Tehran to Ahvaz, from East Azerbaijan to Sistan-Baluchistan, medical facilities are sustaining damage that compounds an already dire shortage of drugs and medical equipment. This article examines the scope of hospital damage, the pre-existing supply crisis worsened by sanctions, the human toll, and what accountability mechanisms exist or don’t for the destruction of healthcare infrastructure during armed conflict.
Table of Contents
- How Are Medical Supply Shortages Affecting Iranian Hospitals During the Bombing Campaign?
- Pre-Existing Drug Shortages Were Already Threatening Millions of Iranian Patients
- The Human Cost — Casualties and the Minab School Attack
- What Accountability Exists for Strikes on Medical Facilities?
- The Sanctions-Bombing Feedback Loop and Long-Term Healthcare Consequences
- Emergency Medical Workers Under Fire
- What Comes Next for Iran’s Healthcare System
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
How Are Medical Supply Shortages Affecting Iranian Hospitals During the Bombing Campaign?
The strikes, which began on February 28, 2026, have damaged seven medical centers across Iran, according to reports verified by multiple international outlets including CGTN and Al Jazeera. Among those hit are Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital in Tehran, verified by BBC Verify, and Aboozar Children’s Hospital in the western city of Ahvaz. Three medical emergency centers in East Azerbaijan, Sistan-Baluchistan, and Hamedan provinces have also sustained damage. The Tehran Emergency Services building suffered what officials described as “serious damage” after a missile strike on March 2, injuring several emergency workers and killing at least two emergency medical personnel. The physical destruction of hospital infrastructure is devastating on its own. But it lands on top of a supply chain that was already fracturing.
Iran’s pharmaceutical industry had been warning for months about severe drug shortages driven by renewed UN sanctions under the snapback mechanism. These sanctions tightened access to foreign currency and strangled the supply chains that Iranian manufacturers depend on for raw materials. Cancer and biotech drugs were expected to be hit hardest. Now, with hospitals physically damaged and logistics networks disrupted by ongoing military operations across more than 130 cities, the ability to distribute whatever supplies remain has deteriorated further. The distinction matters: this is not simply a story about bombs hitting buildings. It is about a healthcare system that was already operating under severe strain being subjected to kinetic military force. Patients who were already struggling to access medication now face the added reality that the facilities where they would receive treatment may no longer be functional.
Pre-Existing Drug Shortages Were Already Threatening Millions of Iranian Patients
Before a single strike was launched, an estimated six million Iranian patients already had limited treatment access for diseases including epilepsy and cancer, according to research published by the Wilson Center. The roots of this crisis trace back years. While approximately 99 percent of Iran’s medicines are produced domestically, the active pharmaceutical ingredients and key chemical compounds needed for manufacturing are imported, primarily from China and India. International banks, fearful of triggering U.S. secondary sanctions, have been reluctant to facilitate even those transactions that are technically exempt under humanitarian provisions. A prior study published through the National Institutes of Health identified shortages of 73 drugs in Iran, of which 44 percent were classified as essential medicines by the World Health Organization.
These are not niche or elective medications. They include treatments for conditions where interruption of supply can mean death or permanent disability. Human Rights Watch documented this pattern extensively, noting that the practical effect of U.S. maximum pressure sanctions has been to harm Iranians’ right to health, regardless of the legal exemptions that exist on paper. However, it is important to note that Iran’s government bears its own share of responsibility for healthcare system weaknesses, including allocation decisions and domestic policy failures that predate the current sanctions regime. The sanctions did not create every problem in Iranian healthcare. But the evidence is clear that they dramatically worsened access to critical medications, and the current military campaign is now compounding those shortages in ways that will take years to unwind, even if the bombing stops tomorrow.
The Human Cost — Casualties and the Minab School Attack
The iranian Red Crescent Society reported at least 555 people killed across Iran as of March 2, 2026. More than 130 cities have come under attack since operations began on February 28. These numbers are almost certainly incomplete, given the ongoing nature of the strikes and the difficulty of conducting accurate counts during active military operations. The deadliest single incident reported so far occurred at a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, where 165 people were killed and 95 wounded. Most of the victims were children.
The targeting of a school has drawn particular international condemnation and has become a focal point for Iran’s demands for international action. Whether this strike was intentional, the result of faulty intelligence, or collateral damage from a nearby military target remains a matter of dispute, but the outcome is not in question. The scale of child casualties at Minab represents a level of destruction that will shape the political and humanitarian dimensions of this conflict for years. For the medical system, mass casualty events like Minab create surge demand that overwhelmed hospitals cannot meet under normal circumstances, let alone when those hospitals are themselves under attack and operating with depleted supply stocks. The injured survivors of such strikes need surgical care, blood products, antibiotics, and long-term rehabilitation, all of which depend on supply chains that are currently fractured.
What Accountability Exists for Strikes on Medical Facilities?
Under international humanitarian law, hospitals and medical facilities are afforded special protection. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols specifically prohibit attacks on medical units unless they are being used to commit hostile acts outside their humanitarian function, and even then, only after due warning. The deliberate targeting of healthcare infrastructure can constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In practice, however, accountability for strikes on medical facilities in armed conflict has been inconsistent at best. The U.S. is not a party to the ICC, which limits the court’s jurisdiction over American military personnel.
Israel has historically contested allegations of targeting civilian infrastructure, typically arguing that military targets were located in proximity. Iran has demanded international action, but the enforcement mechanisms available through the UN Security Council are subject to veto by the very nations conducting the strikes. This creates an accountability gap that effectively allows the destruction of healthcare infrastructure to continue without immediate legal consequence. The tradeoff is a familiar one in international law: the rules exist, they are well-established, and most nations formally acknowledge them. But enforcement depends on political will that is rarely present when the parties responsible for violations hold permanent seats on the Security Council. For the patients and medical workers on the ground in Iran, the legal framework offers little immediate protection.
The Sanctions-Bombing Feedback Loop and Long-Term Healthcare Consequences
One of the most dangerous aspects of the current crisis is the feedback loop between sanctions and military operations. Sanctions restricted the flow of pharmaceutical ingredients into Iran. This created shortages. Military strikes are now destroying the facilities and logistics networks needed to distribute whatever medications remain. As the conflict continues, the ability to import replacement equipment, rebuild damaged infrastructure, or restock depleted pharmacies diminishes further because the financial channels needed for those transactions remain blocked or severely constrained. This feedback loop has a compounding effect that extends well beyond the duration of active hostilities.
Medical equipment that took years to acquire and install, like the IVF department destroyed at Gandhi Hospital, cannot be replaced quickly, even under ideal conditions. The specialized embryos and biological materials lost in that strike are irreplaceable entirely. When hospitals are damaged, the healthcare workers who staffed them are often displaced, injured, or killed. Rebuilding physical structures is only part of the challenge. Reconstituting the trained workforce and institutional knowledge takes far longer. A critical limitation to acknowledge: comprehensive, independently verified data on the full scope of medical supply shortages in Iran right now is difficult to obtain. The figures cited here come from credible international sources, but the fog of an active military campaign means that the true scale of healthcare disruption is almost certainly worse than what has been documented so far.
Emergency Medical Workers Under Fire
The attack on the Tehran Emergency Services building on March 2 highlights a particularly troubling dimension of this conflict. Emergency medical personnel, the first responders who are supposed to reach casualties and transport them to hospitals, are themselves becoming casualties. At least two emergency medical workers were killed in the strike, and several others were injured. The building itself suffered serious structural damage.
When emergency services are targeted or damaged, the entire chain of emergency medical response breaks down. Patients who might survive their injuries with prompt treatment die waiting for help that cannot reach them. This is not a hypothetical concern. In conflicts where medical infrastructure has been systematically degraded, from Syria to Yemen, the secondary death toll from inability to access care has rivaled or exceeded the direct toll from the strikes themselves.
What Comes Next for Iran’s Healthcare System
The trajectory is grim. Even if hostilities were to cease immediately, Iran’s healthcare system faces a recovery timeline measured in years, not months. The combination of destroyed facilities, killed and displaced medical professionals, depleted drug stocks, and ongoing sanctions pressure means that the six million patients who already had limited access to treatment before February 28 are now in a significantly worse position.
The snapback sanctions that were already expected to cause severe drug shortages by mid-2026 will interact with war damage to create compounding scarcity. The international community faces a concrete question: whether humanitarian exemptions to sanctions will be meaningfully expanded and enforced to allow medical supplies into a country that has sustained significant damage to its healthcare infrastructure. History suggests that the gap between stated humanitarian exemptions and actual access to financial channels for medical transactions will persist. For Iranian patients with cancer, epilepsy, and other conditions requiring consistent medication access, the coming months present a survival-level crisis that extends far beyond the immediate violence.
Conclusion
The bombing campaign against Iran has struck at least seven medical facilities, killed emergency medical workers, and destroyed specialized healthcare equipment that cannot be quickly replaced. These strikes have landed on a healthcare system already reeling from sanctions-driven drug shortages affecting an estimated six million patients. The death toll has reached at least 555, with the Minab school attack alone killing 165 people, most of them children. The compounding effect of military destruction and economic isolation is creating a healthcare emergency that will outlast the conflict itself.
Accountability for the destruction of medical infrastructure remains effectively absent given the current structure of international enforcement. The facts on the ground are documented by credible international organizations and verified by independent outlets, but documentation alone does not protect hospitals or ensure that patients receive the medications they need. What happens next depends on whether the international community treats the destruction of Iranian healthcare infrastructure as a serious legal and humanitarian matter, or as an acceptable cost of the broader military campaign. The evidence so far suggests the latter, and millions of patients will bear the consequences.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many medical facilities in Iran have been damaged by U.S.-Israeli strikes?
As of March 2, 2026, seven medical facilities have been damaged, including hospitals and emergency stations across multiple provinces. Among them are Gandhi Hospital and Khatam-al-Anbia Hospital in Tehran, Aboozar Children’s Hospital in Ahvaz, and three medical emergency centers in East Azerbaijan, Sistan-Baluchistan, and Hamedan.
Were Iranian hospitals already facing supply shortages before the bombing?
Yes. Iran’s pharmaceutical industry had been warning of severe drug shortages due to renewed UN sanctions under the snapback mechanism. An estimated six million patients already had limited access to treatment for diseases including cancer and epilepsy. While 99 percent of medicines are produced domestically, active pharmaceutical ingredients are imported, and international banks have been reluctant to process even exempt humanitarian transactions.
What was the deadliest single attack reported so far?
The deadliest single incident was a strike on a girls’ school in the southern city of Minab, which killed 165 people and wounded 95. Most of the victims were children.
Is the targeting of hospitals a violation of international law?
Under the Geneva Conventions, hospitals and medical facilities are afforded special protection and attacks on them are prohibited unless they are being used for hostile acts. Deliberate targeting of medical infrastructure can constitute a war crime under the Rome Statute. However, enforcement mechanisms are limited, particularly when the nations conducting strikes hold veto power on the UN Security Council.
How many people have been killed in the strikes overall?
The Iranian Red Crescent Society reported at least 555 people killed as of March 2, 2026, with more than 130 cities coming under attack since operations began on February 28. These figures are likely to increase as the situation develops.