Delivering health care in conflict zones is harrowing and happens in some of humanity’s most austere and demanding environments. War intensifies preexisting conditions of material deprivation that exacerbate poor health. Responding to needs and vulnerabilities of refugees, ensuring clinicians’ safety, and allocating scarce resources justly are among some of the most interesting, important, and complex questions that must be navigated in real time. Children’s and elders’ risks of suffering harm are, perhaps, most dire in conflict zones in which those persons’ caregivers are dead, dying, or fighting for their lives in grave danger. Patient, clinician, and health care infrastructure challenges in areas of conflict are focal points of this theme issue.