A/HRC/22/59 Hama governorate 25. The commission has received accounts of the Syrian Army occupying and using the National Hospital in Halfaya, Hama, as a military base and thus rendering it a military objective. Homs governorate 26. On 24 July, a field hospital in Talbiseh was shelled, injuring eight civilians. Findings 27. Field hospitals, as medical units, are afforded special protection under international humanitarian law, be they military or civilian, fixed or mobile, permanent or temporary, as long as they are organised and utilised for medical purposes. According to applicable customary international humanitarian law, the protection from attack accorded to medical units and hospitals, shall not cease unless they are used to commit hostile acts, outside their humanitarian function, and only after a warning has been given and after the warning has remained unheeded for a reasonable time. The presence of soldiers or fighters solely for the protection of the hospital or for the maintenance of order does not alter the hospital or medical unit’s protected status. It remains a civilian object; not a military one. 28. The first-hand account of the physician tortured and charged with providing medical assistance denotes a serious violation of international humanitarian law. Punishing a person for performing medical duties is prohibited. 29. Hospitals and medical units have been deliberately targeted by Government forces to gain military advantage by depriving anti-Government armed groups and those perceived to support them of medical assistance for sustained injuries. There are also reasonable grounds to believe that Government forces have committed the war crime of attacking protected objectsb and the war crime of attacking objects or persons using the distinctive emblems of the Geneva Conventions.c Certain attacks, such as those on Dar Al-Shifa hospital in Aleppo, appear to have been intended to terrorise a local population by targeting a prominent protected facility. As military operations are increasingly carried out in densely populated, urban areas, hospitals and medical units may have been hit by missiles or mortars that may have been aimed at nearby military targets. B. Anti-Government armed groups Damascus governorate 30. The commission recorded a car bomb explosion outside of a hospital in Al-Wahdeh neighbourhood in Jaramana, Damascus governorate on 28 August. While the perpetrator is unknown, vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices have characterised anti-Government armed group conduct. Investigation into the incident is on-going. Homs governorate 31. A young fighter relayed how an anti-Government armed group attacked a checkpoint outside the National Military Hospital in Jurat Al-Shayyah in western Homs in September. After gaining control of the checkpoint, the interviewee described how fighters b c GE.13-10627 Article 8(2)(e)(iv), Rome Statute. Article 8(2)(e)(ii), Rome Statute. 113