regarding international humanitarian law the protection of hospitals is according to the geneva convention the agreement from was also signed and ratified by the usa according to that agreement hospitals are protected the exception is unless the facilities are being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy as rightly commented in the article but even if enemy combatants are inappropriately using the facility for shelter the rule of proportionality usually forbids such attacks because of the high potential for civilian casualties why the usually as a qualifier and it is not the human rights organization human rights watch stated that the laws of war require the attacking force to issue a warning and wait a reasonable time for a response before attacking a medical unit being misused by combatants but the geneva convention itself that requires a warning by the attacking force and that is not a choice why having qualifiers as if the geneva convention is not clear on the point of the protection of a hospital and this scenario an unannounced air strike by an ac definitely falls outside a hypothetical proportional attack why being so ambiguous about it the geneva conventions forbids the attack on a hospital except in exceptional circumstances