The children of Dr. Marwan Al Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in Gaza and one of the territory’s most senior doctors, said they believe his father was deliberately targeted in an Israeli airstrike that killed him on Wednesday.
The Sultan died when an Israeli missile was fired into an apartment block in Gaza city. His wife, daughter, sister and son-in-law were also killed in the attack.
His surviving daughter, Robna, said the airstrikes specifically targeted the room where her father was. “All rooms were fine except for him.
His son Ahmed said “there is no other explanation” other than that his father was intentionally targeted by the Israeli army. He also added that the floor where his father and their large family were staying was the only part of a block hit in the airstrike.
Photos and videos taken by local journalists and given to the Guardian showed that blocks of the apartment had collided with the fronts of the fourth and fifth floors, but the rest remained.
“Until the very end of his life, he did not quit his job. He paid this dedication in his life,” Ahmed said. “I was there 10 minutes ago when I was faced with airstrikes and returning to my apartment after the attack was verbally expressed. I didn’t know who survived and died.
He said that his father’s death was not just a loss for his family, but also in Gaza as a whole. Sultan was an experienced cardiologist and a leading figure in Gaza’s medical community. He was also one of two remaining cardiac experts on the territory, according to the Palestinian healthcare worker Watch (HWW).
“My father was loved by all people,” Ahmed said. “He was surrounded at Indonesian hospitals and Kamal Adwan Hospital, but he didn’t leave. He was always in the hospital for a few hours, so he didn’t see him.”
His death means that all overseers of hospitals in northern Gaza were killed or detained by Israeli forces.
Dr. Ahmed Al-Karout, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, and his fellow acting director, Dr. Husam Abu Safiya, director of Al-Auda Hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Ahmed Muhanna, director of Al-Auda Hospital, are all housed in Israeli prisons.
According to HWW data, the Sultan was the 70th medical worker killed by Israeli forces in the past 50 days. The United Nations says more than 1,400 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war in October 2023.
Under the Geneva Convention, a set of international law that polices the attacks of war workers on health workers in conflict could be a war crime. The treaty states that, rather than being targeted or attacked during a conflict, doctors and other health professionals should be protected and allowed to provide medical care to those in need.
Source: Guardian