US strikes evacuate 211 cancer patients from Ahvaz Hospital
US strikes beside Iran's Shahid Baqaei children's cancer hospital in Ahvaz forced 211 chemotherapy patients onto stretchers this week.
US strikes hit a residential district beside a children’s cancer hospital in Ahvaz on Wednesday, forcing staff to evacuate 211 chemotherapy patients, some on ventilators and oxygen.
Staff at the Shahid Baqaei Specialised Hospital told Al Jazeera that children were carried out mid-treatment as the building was shaken by blasts nearby. “Some people had children in their arms, some had IVs in their hands, and some were in wheelchairs,” one staff member said. The Iran cancer hospital evacuated patients into the street as windows shattered and the building was knocked out of service, according to hospital manager Dr Majid Bou’azar, who said all 211 patients had to be relocated. Hospital director Reza Bazar confirmed the strikes had put the facility out of action.
Iran cancer hospital evacuated as blasts hit Ahvaz
At least five projectiles struck the area that day, Iranian officials said, with one landing close enough to the hospital to blow out its windows. No deaths were reported inside the hospital itself. The United States has not commented on the hospital allegation specifically. CENTCOM, under Admiral Brad Cooper, said its forces launched a fresh wave of strikes the following day, describing the targets as military capabilities threatening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran’s foreign ministry called the strike near the hospital “a cowardly war crime against the most innocent of human beings”, adding that the children hit by it “are bravely fighting for their lives.” Spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said those who “ceaselessly preach human rights, yet deliberately turn a blind eye to the targeting of hospitals… have forfeited every shred of moral credibility.”
The strike landed two days after Donald Trump told Fox News he would “knock out all their power plants” and “all their bridges” unless Tehran returned to the negotiating table. UN human rights chief Volker Türk has already said deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure amount to a war crime.
A pattern, not an accident
This is not an isolated incident. Iranian officials say 17 hospitals have been severely damaged since the war began on 28 February, and the Iranian Red Crescent counts 307 medical and emergency facilities hit. The World Health Organization has independently verified more than 20 attacks on Iranian healthcare facilities since 1 March, including at least nine deaths.
The precedent is Minab. On the war’s first day, a strike destroyed a primary school in the town, killing an estimated 168 to 175 people, most of them girls aged seven to twelve. A preliminary US inquiry has already concluded American forces were “likely responsible,” blaming stale intelligence. More than two dozen Democratic senators, led by Kirsten Gillibrand, are demanding the Pentagon release its full unredacted report on that strike by 20 July.
Britain’s bases behind the campaign
Britain is not a bystander. Keir Starmer authorised US use of UK bases for strikes on Iranian targets when the war began, and reporting since has pointed to RAF Akrotiri, RAF Fairford and RAF Mildenhall playing a deeper role in the campaign than Downing Street has admitted.
A government that has publicly promised to bomb power stations and bridges has forfeited the right to call a children’s cancer ward collateral damage.
