Gaza Hospital Director Killed Alongside Family Members in Israeli Airstrike
Dr. Marwan Sultan, the director of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday, according to relatives and the Gaza Health Ministry.
The doctor was killed alongside his wife, sister, daughter and son-in-law when a missile hit the apartment where the family where staying, his surviving daughter Lobna said.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“A missile was dropped on his room exactly, on his place, on him precisely. All the rooms were fine except for his; the missile hit it precisely,” she added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement to TIME that it struck a “key Hamas terrorist” on Wednesday during an operation in Gaza City.
“The claim that as a result of the strike uninvolved civilians were harmed is being reviewed. The IDF regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to mitigate harm to them as much as possible,” it said.
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) condemned the death, describing Sultan as “a dedicated medical professional who had worked under unimaginable conditions to provide care to patients trying to survive months of Israel’s military bombardment and blockade.”
Death of doctor adds to rising toll of healthcare workers in Gaza war
MAP says that the number of healthcare workers killed in Gaza has now reached at least 1,580 since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023.
“Despite being protected under international law, Gaza’s healthcare workers are being erased before the world’s eyes,” MAP said in a statement in response to Sultan’s death on Wednesday.
Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Gaza-based organization, said that Sultan’s death brings the number of healthcare workers killed by Israeli airstrikes to 50 over the past 70 days.
The Indonesian Hospital, which Sultan managed, was forced to close in May after “repeated Israeli attacks and sustained structural damage,” according to the United Nations.
Sultan had at the time described the Israeli attacks as a “direct targeting of the hospital, including the intensive care unit.”
Gaza’s health system strained under sustained Israeli attacks
The World Health Organization (WHO) last month said that there were no more functioning hospitals left in northern Gaza, with the health system across the whole of the strip “collapsing.”
The deterioration of the enclave’s health system comes with repeated strikes targeting hospitals. WHO said patients sheltering in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Hospital, Deir al-Balah, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday, adding that it has documented 734 attacks on health facilities in Gaza since the start of the war.
Read more: State Department Bans Rap Duo Bob Vylan From U.S. After ‘Death to IDF’ Chant at Glastonbury
The International Committee for the Red Cross said that it is “alarmed by the intensifying hostilities” in Gaza and that its Field Hospital is overwhelmed as a result.
The ICRC urgently reiterates its call for the protection of medical personnel and medical facilities in Gaza. They must be respected and protected to safeguard a lifeline for the wounded and sick,” a statement read.
The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 118 Palestinians have been killed in the last 24 hours, bringing the total deaths in Gaza to over 57,000 since the start of the war.
The ministry is the primary source for casualty data relied upon by humanitarian groups, journalists, and international bodies in the absence of independent monitoring on the ground.
The war was triggered after the Hamas terror attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing over 1,200 people and taking around 250 hostages.