Hospitals Turned Into Hunting Grounds: IRGC's Assault on the Wounded Demands Immediate Global Action

Iranian security forces transformed hospitals into extensions of the state’s repression apparatus, raiding medical centers across the country to arrest wounded protesters and intimidate medical staff, according to detailed reporting by Iran International based on information from inside Iran.

Hospitals meant to heal became places to hide, as fear replaced care and silence was enforced.

What should be sanctuaries of care became sites of fear. At the height of a nationwide crackdown that left at least 12,000 people dead in just two nights, hospitals were no longer neutral spaces. They were converted into controlled security zones, monitored and penetrated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Basij units, and plainclothes intelligence agents.

IRGC's Assault on Hospitals Weaponized Against Civilians

Eyewitness accounts cited in the report describe security forces entering hospitals in Tehran and other cities, identifying injured protesters, and removing them directly from beds. In some cases, detainees were taken mid treatment. In others, they were arrested immediately after admission. Armed and plainclothes agents were stationed at entrances and inside wards, effectively placing entire medical facilities under occupation.

The message was unmistakable. Seeking medical care itself became an act of defiance punishable by arrest.

As a result, many wounded protesters avoided hospitals altogether, choosing untreated injuries over detention or disappearance. Journalists and analysts warned that this fear almost certainly increased the true death toll, as preventable injuries went untreated during a period when independent reporting was nearly impossible.

Collective Punishment and Forced Silence

IRGC's assault was accompanied by a broader campaign of intimidation. Families of those killed or injured were subjected to home raids, threats, and coercion. In several cases, families were ordered to bury their dead in silence, before dawn, with no public mourning and no media contact. Neighbors were warned. Entire communities were placed under psychological siege.

Medical professionals were not spared. Doctors and nurses were forced to work under the watch of security agents, stripping them of professional autonomy and violating the most basic principles of medical ethics. Hospitals ceased to function as independent institutions and instead operated under de facto security command.

This systematic assault on patients, families, and healthcare workers represents a collapse of any remaining pretense of rule of law.

The Internet Blackout as a Tool of Erasure

These actions unfolded under a near total internet shutdown that exceeded 120 hours at the time of the report. According to Iran International, the blackout was not only intended to disrupt protests, but to suppress evidence.

By severing communications, the state sought to prevent images of wounded bodies, hospital raids, and mass casualties from reaching the outside world. Editors at the network warned that once connectivity is restored, the international community should expect a flood of documentation, including footage and testimony from hospitals that are currently sealed off from scrutiny.

Crimes Against Humanity, Not Internal Affairs

Legal experts interviewed during the broadcast were unequivocal. The targeting of hospitals and the arrest of wounded civilians constitute grave violations of international law. Medical facilities are protected spaces. Criminalizing medical treatment and using hospitals as instruments of repression, when carried out systematically, meets the threshold of crimes against humanity.

This was not the act of rogue commanders or localized excess. The pattern described was nationwide, coordinated, and deliberate. It was designed to eliminate safe spaces, terrorize the population, and erase evidence of mass killing.

Outrage Is Not Enough

The international community has issued statements. It has expressed concern. That is no longer sufficient.

When a state turns hospitals into hunting grounds, neutrality is no longer possible. When wounded civilians are dragged from beds and families are forced to bury their dead in silence, inaction becomes complicity.

Governments, international institutions, and human rights bodies must move beyond condemnation and take concrete steps. This includes targeted sanctions against those responsible, emergency investigations under international mechanisms, protection pathways for medical workers and witnesses, and coordinated diplomatic and legal pressure that reflects the scale of the crimes being committed.

The principle is simple. Sovereignty does not shield a government that becomes the executioner of its own people. A state that wages war on the wounded has forfeited any claim to legitimacy.

Iran International has issued a call for families, medical workers, and witnesses to preserve and submit documentation of hospital raids, arrests, and killings. The record, they say, will be built name by name, case by case. History will not accept ignorance as an excuse.

The world must now decide whether it will merely watch that record grow, or act decisively to stop it .