Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and the People’s Health Movement (PHM) Global marked World Health Day 2026 with a discussion on the impacts of ongoing wars on health worldwide, bringing reports from Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran, as well as reflections on healthcare in Cuba and the potential of grassroots movements in ongoing solidarity struggles.

The World Health Organization (WHO) linked the period between World Health Day 2025 and 2026 with the slogan “Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures,” PHM Global Coordinator Aziz Rhali said during the webinar. “But I don’t know how we can speak about a future in this crisis in the whole world,” he added.

Read more: New PHM global coordinator: “Palestine is a symbol of resistance for a new world”

Healthcare systems in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran have all come under direct attack during assaults led by Israel and the United States. Ubai Al-Aboudi from Bisan Center for Research and Development described the near-total paralysis of Gaza’s healthcare after over two years of genocide, with 94% of hospitals destroyed or damaged and only 1.5% of primary health centers operating at full capacity. Even the hospitals that were able to partially resume operations, Al-Aboudi added, are functioning more as day hospitals or ambulatories than clinical centers – impacted not only by physical destruction of buildings but also by shortages of essential supplies that Israel still impedes from entering the Strip.

The situation in the West Bank continues to be dire as well, with health services obstructed by the occupation’s withholding of tax revenues and movement restrictions. Because of such restrictions, Al-Aboudi emphasized, instead of a single health center providing care to multiple villages, it is now necessary to establish health points in each locality – as it is not possible to rely on travel to reach care.

Israel-made shortages of medicines and food in Gaza continue to fuel malnutrition and communicable diseases, with Al-Aboudi emphasizing that the burden of infectious diseases throughout the genocide has been overwhelming: since October 2023, Gaza’s health authorities have reported approximately 2 million respiratory infections – affecting virtually all people in the Strip – along with 500,000 cases of diarrhea and hundreds of thousands of cases of skin infections.

Read more: Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s health system are a “health catastrophe,” health movement warns

“Lebanon is the second Gaza,” said Zeina Mohanna from Amel Association. “The methodologies being used in Lebanon are the same ones being used in Gaza. Many villages in the South are very similar to what my comrade [Ubai Al-Aboudi] just highlighted.”

Since late February, Amel and other organizations supporting health services in Lebanon have struggled to respond to massive migration created by Israel’s attacks, with over 1.2 million people violently displaced. Communicable diseases are already being reported in shelters and camps, Mohanna said, and health points, ambulances, and health workers were being targeted – following the blueprint observed in Gaza. Journalist Ali Akbar Taheri described a similar situation in Iran, where US-Israeli bombardments had already destroyed hundreds of health centers and other civilian infrastructure.

Read more: US-Israeli attacks on Iran’s health infrastructure threaten decades of public health advancements

“The barbarity of the attacks we are seeing is unprecedented in the history of West Asia,” said Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum and media outlet NewsClick, warning against the dubious positions many governments in the region had adopted toward Israel during the genocide and wars on Lebanon and Iran. He insisted that such government behavior, including in India’s case, should inspire more decisive solidarity among the people.

“Our solidarity is not just trying to get medicine to Iran,” Purkayastha said. “Yes, we should try and do that, but I think the basic battle we have to fight is in India. If we want to show solidarity, then we have to reconnect to the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial movement that brought us freedom.”

The event participants also insisted on not losing sight of other health systems under attack, physical or otherwise. Rhali pointed out that while reports about destruction of healthcare in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran could still be found in the news, there was much less coverage of attacks on healthcare in Yemen, Libya, Sudan, or the Democratic Republic of the Congo – all devastated by the same interests now responsible for the newest bombardment of West Asia.

Read more: Venezuela and Cuba: a socialist alliance for Health for All

Some attacks on healthcare come in less visible forms, as Jennifer Cardona Malaver from Alames illustrated using Cuba as an example, where an intensified and prolonged illegal blockade imposed by the US translated into an attack on the socialist island’s landmark health system. PHM activists, including Global Coordinator Rhali, took part in a recent solidarity flotilla, bringing tons of medicines and solar panels to help bridge blackouts caused by fuel shortages. During the discussion, they pledged to continue along the same lines, honoring Cuba’s contribution to medical solidarity throughout decades. “We don’t know what Trump is going to do with Cuba,” said Carmen Baez of PHM Argentina, “but we know that all of us, we stand with Cuba as we stand with Palestine and Lebanon and Iran.”

Rhali concluded by reaffirming one of the priorities he outlined when his term as PHM coordinator was announced: strengthening and connecting the work of country and regional circles, thus expanding understanding of overlapping crises, and mounting joint resistance. “We cannot find a solution to our crises in capitalism,” he pointed out, so it is imperative to work together to build an alternative.

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch*. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click* here.

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