87: Why don’t the rules of war protect health care workers and facilities in Gaza?

In just two weeks, the brutality of the Israel-Hamas conflict has shocked the world. But one of its most heartbreaking aspects — the destruction of the already-struggling health care system in Gaza — is part of a decades-long pattern during war both in the region and around the world. Leonard Rubenstein is a distinguished professor of practice at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and author of “Perilous Medicine: The Struggle to Protect Health Care From the Violence of War.” On this episode of the First Opinion Podcast, we spoke about health care in war, the Geneva Conventions, and why it’s so difficult to hold those who break international law accountable.