‘No other explanation': children of slain Gaza doctor say he was deliberately targeted
Sultan died when an Israeli missile was fired into the apartment block in Gaza City where he and his extended family were staying after their displacement from northern Gaza. His wife, daughter, sister and son-in-law were also killed in the attack.
His surviving daughter Lobna said the airstrike specifically targeted the room her father was in. 'All the rooms were fine except for his, the missile hit it precisely,' she said.
His son Ahmed said there was 'no other explanation' other than that his father was deliberately targeted by the Israeli military. He also added that the floors where his father and their extended family were staying were the only parts of the block hit in the airstrike.
Photos and videos taken by local journalists and given to the Guardian, showed that the apartment block had been hit on the front side of the fourth and fifth floors, while the rest remained intact.
'Until the last minute of his life, he did not leave his job. He paid for this dedication with his life,' said Ahmed. 'I was there only 10 minutes before the airstrike and the scene I faced when I went back to the apartment after the attack is indescribable. I didn't know who had survived and who had died. Some people were only now shattered body parts. Most of those who died were women and children.'
He said his father's death was not just a loss for the family but for the whole of Gaza. Sultan was an experienced cardiologist and a leading figure in Gaza's medical community. He was also one of only two remaining heart specialists in the territory, according to Healthcare Worker Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
'My father was loved by all people,' said Ahmed. 'He had been besieged at the Indonesian hospital and also at the Kamal Adwan hospital but he did not leave. For the first few months [of the war] we did not see him except a few hours of the day because he was always at the hospital.'
His death means that all of the directors of the hospitals in northern Gaza have either been killed or detained by the Israeli military forces.
The director of Kamal Adwan hospital, Dr Ahmed al-Kahlout, and his fellow acting director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, as well as Dr Ahmed Muhanna, the director of al-Awda hospital in northern Gaza, are all being held in an Israeli prison.
In a statement, the IDF said: 'On Wednesday, the IDF struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organisation in the area of 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. The Hamas terrorist organisation systematically violates international law while using civilian infrastructure for terrorist activity and the civilian population as human shields. The incident is under review.'
According to data from HWW, Sultan was the 70th healthcare worker to have been killed by the Israeli military in the past 50 days. The UN says that overall more than 1,400 healthcare workers have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the war in October 2023.
Under the Geneva conventions, the set of international laws that police the conduct of warring parties, attacks on healthcare workers during conflict could be war crimes. The conventions state that doctors and other healthcare professionals should be protected, not targeted or attacked during conflict, and must be allowed to carry on providing medical care to those who need it.
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The Independent
28 minutes ago
- The Independent
Israeli forces kill 63 Palestinian in Gaza within hours of ‘humanitarian pause'
The Israeli military killed at least 63 people across Gaza just hours after declaring daily 'pauses' in operations to facilitate the passage of humanitarian aid, health officials said. The military said on Sunday it would suspend operations daily from 10am until 8pm in parts of central and northern Gaza, including al-Mawasi, Deir el-Balah and Gaza City, and promised to open aid corridors from 6am to 11pm to let in food and medical supplies. However, within hours of the so-called 'humanitarian pause' taking effect, Israeli forces resumed air raids. One reported strike targeted a bakery in an area designated as a 'safe zone', according to Al Jazeera. The humanitarian crisis continued to worsen. Health officials reported six more deaths, including of two children, from starvation in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 133. Among the latest to succumb was five-month-old Zainab Abu Haleeb, who died of malnutrition at the Nasser Hospital. 'Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead,' her mother Israa Abu Haleeb told Al Jazeera. The World Food Programme said one in three people in Gaza had gone days without food and about half a million were experiencing famine-like conditions. More than 20 per cent of pregnant and breastfeeding women were malnourished, according to the World Health Organization. Israel maintains that it is working to improve aid access and denies that famine exists in Gaza. But aid organisations say the situation is catastrophic, with a quarter of the population at risk of acute malnutrition. UN officials say the crisis won't ease unless Israel speeds up the movement of aid convoys through its checkpoints. A top UN official said last week Palestinians were beginning to resemble 'walking corpses'. Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, said humanitarian workers were encountering children who were 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying' without immediate intervention. 'Families are no longer coping. They're breaking down, unable to survive,' Mr Lazzarini said. 'Their existence is threatened.' Israel has severely limited the flow of food and humanitarian aid into Gaza, allowing only a small number of trucks to enter each day after enforcing an 11-week total blockade earlier this year. UN officials warn the current level of aid is merely a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of need. The Israeli military intercepted an aid ship bound for Gaza that aimed to breach the blockade on the Palestinian territory, detaining 21 international activists and journalists and confiscating all cargo, including baby formula, food, and medicine, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Sunday. The group said Israeli forces 'violently intercepted' their vessel, Handala, in international waters around 40 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, cutting off cameras and communication shortly before midnight on Saturday. 'All cargo was non-military, civilian and intended for direct distribution to a population facing deliberate starvation and medical collapse under Israel's illegal blockade,'' the group said in a statement. It was the second ship operated by the coalition that Israeli forces prevented in recent months from delivering aid to Gaza. It was reported on Sunday that Jordan and the UAE had begun airdropping aid into the besieged Palestinian territory. But Mr Lazzarini said 'airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation'. 'They are expensive, inefficient and can even kill starving civilians. It is a distraction & smokescreen,' he said in an X post. 'A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will. Lift the siege, open the gates and guarantee safe movements with dignified access to people in need. Israel's war on Gaza has killed nearly 60,000 Palestinians, injured over 144,000, and left most of the densely populated coastal territory in ruins and the majority of its 2.2 million people homeless and starving. Israel launched the war in October 2023 after nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed and 251 taken hostage during a Hamas attack.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Protesting over Gaza's starvation feels like screaming into a void – but we mustn't stop
The children die first. In conditions of starvation, their growing bodies' nutritional needs are higher than those of adults, and so their reserves are depleted faster. Their immune systems, not yet fully developed, become weaker, more susceptible to disease and infection. A bout of diarrhoea is lethal. Their wounds don't heal. The babies cannot be breastfed as their mothers have not eaten. They die at double the rate of adults. Last week, over a period of just 72 hours, 21 children died in Gaza of malnutrition and starvation. The path to death from starvation is a slow and agonising one, especially in a territory suffering shortages of not just food, but medicine, shelter and clean water. The total death toll from hunger surpassed 100 at the weekend; 80 of those were children. An aid worker reported that children are telling their parents that they want to die and go to heaven, because 'at least heaven has food'. Every single one of these deaths, and those that will come, is preventable. The World Health Organization described the starvation as 'man-made', but it is more than that. It is foreseeable and thus deliberate. Israel's siege on Gaza has blocked tonnes of aid from entering, or being distributed to those who need it, according to humanitarian organisations there. The 'tactical pause' of military operations for a few hours a day in three parts of the Gaza Strip to allow in some aid is a measure that does not ameliorate a crisis accrued over time. The starvation, long warned about, is the latest phase of a campaign almost two years long, for which words are now entirely inadequate. Genocide, ethnic cleansing, mass punishment – all these descriptions still somehow do not capture the lurid and varied ways in which Palestinians in Gaza are being killed: bombed in their homes, and in their tents, burned alive in their hospital beds, shot while queueing for food and now starved. It almost doesn't matter what it is called any more, because all you need to see to know that what is happening is a crime that requires immediate action is the bones of a child sticking out of its thin skin, while the food it needs is being blocked by Israeli soldiers. The time for justifications, arguing about semantics and hand-wringing over the 'complexity' of the conflict has long passed. The only question now is, how is it that the world cannot get Israel to allow a morsel of food into a starving civilian's mouth? How is this a government still not decisively cut off, sanctioned and embargoed? How is this a government, still, that David Lammy thinks he can 'urge' to do the right thing? The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, posted on X calling the images from Gaza 'unbearable', and called for more aid to be let in and for Israel to 'deliver on its pledges'. This, and other EU social media statements, was described by an Oxfam official as 'hollow' and 'baffling'. Benjamin Netanyahu has proved, over and over, that he has no intention of complying with anything. Only last week, a minister said that 'there is no nation that feeds its enemies', and that the government was 'rushing toward Gaza being wiped out' while also 'driving out the population that educated its people on the ideas of Mein Kampf'. The truth is that there is no strategic goal for defeating Hamas, only constantly shifting goalposts, under a prime minister who has yoked his political survival to the indefinite extension of an assault on Gaza. And in the meantime, the escalating horrors and their relentless continuation unsettle and reconfigure the world. But the more the hard, cold core of support for Israel's actions is revealed, the more credibility and legitimacy drains away from it. The result is a head-on confrontation between political establishments and the public in a situation that is no longer manageable. The recent escalating rhetoric, for it is only that, from Keir Starmer is an indication that Gaza is now an issue that must be paid lip service to if it is not to further coalesce into a domestic problem for an already embattled government. But still, that rhetoric seems to be part of an elaborate game, in which everyone dances increasingly performatively around what needs to happen. That game is to maintain, no matter the violation, the tenability of Israel as a moral player, while pretending that when it transgresses it will be scolded back into compliance. The 'when' here is important. The players of this game are constantly inventing new beginnings, new red lines, new watersheds, which mean the necessary point of rupture with Israel is constantly moved to a new point on the horizon. Whether it is the killing of aid workers, the killing of those actually seeking aid, or now the starvation, each escalation of Israel's campaign seems to trigger a fresh wave of finger wagging. The result is a permanent moment of impending action, as threatened by Lammy. Action that never comes. And while we wait, the status quo is maintained in a holding pattern until the latest horror fades from our screens and front pages. Or Israel applies some temporary measure, such as its 'tactical pause' in the fighting, that does not address the fundamental conditions of siege, blockade and civilian killings. But protest, no matter how ostensibly ineffective, remains the only way any pressure can be applied on those who have the power to censure Israel in ways that are meaningful, by ceasing military and trade relations. Protesting might feel like screaming into a void, but even the little change we have seen – the pitifully few trucks of aid now rolling into Gaza – is down to the strain of that confrontation with the political establishment. What else public anger is capable of achieving can only be realised if it does not relent. The way that strain translates into something meaningful can be impossible to divine, because being subjected to these placatory ruses for almost two years has been enough to inflict a sort of cognitive injury. We are told by powerful politicians that things cannot continue as they are, and then, suddenly, it is another few months and things have not only continued but worsened. There is something genuinely mind-bending about it, something exhausting and scattering of resolve when it seems that finally, something seems to be shifting and sanity is prevailing, and then it doesn't. The purpose is to quieten the public through verbal laudanum, or distract it by the lowest-cost calls for recognising a Palestinian state. These are phantom wins, a grotesque exercise in crowd control, reputation laundering and public opinion management. Innocents are now starving to death. All that is not action is noise. Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
Sky News
4 hours ago
- Sky News
Israel-Hamas war: 'Vast amounts of aid needed to stave off catastrophic health crisis in Gaza,' UN warns
Israel has agreed to support a "one-week scale-up of aid" in Gaza - but the United Nations has warned more action is needed to "stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis". UN aid chief Tom Fletcher made the remarks as Israel began limited pauses in fighting across three areas of Gaza for 10 hours a day to address the worsening humanitarian situation. Israel cut off all supplies to Gaza's population from the start of March. It then reopened aid centres with new restrictions in May, but said the supply had to be controlled to prevent it from being stolen by Hamas militants. On Saturday, reports referencing US government data said there was no evidence Hamas had stolen aid from UN agencies. Images of emaciated Palestinian children have led to widespread criticism of Israel's actions in Gaza, including by allies who are calling for an end to the war. Mr Fletcher said one in three people in Gaza "hasn't eaten for days" and "children are wasting away". He added: "We welcome Israel's decision to support a one-week scale-up of aid, including lifting customs barriers on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt and the reported designation of secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys. "Some movement restrictions appear to have been eased today, with initial reports indicating that over 100 truckloads were collected. "This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis. Across the UN agencies and humanitarian community, we are mobilised to save as many lives as we can." The Israel Defence Forces said yesterday that it is halting military operations in Muwasi, Deir al Balah and Gaza City daily from 10am to 8pm local time (8am to 6pm UK time) until further notice. Combat operations have continued outside of this 10-hour window. Health officials in Gaza said Israeli strikes killed at least 41 Palestinians overnight into Sunday morning, including 26 seeking aid. In a statement, the IDF said it would also establish secure routes to help the UN and aid agencies deliver food and other supplies. Israel's announcement of what it calls a "tactical pause" in fighting comes after it resumed airdrops of aid into Gaza. While the IDF reiterated claims there is "no starvation" in the territory, it said the airdrops would include "seven pallets of aid containing flour, sugar and canned food to be provided by international organisations". Palestinian sources confirmed that aid had begun dropping in northern parts of the territory. Sabreen Hasson, a Palestinian mother who travelled to an aid point near the Zikim crossing to collect supplies, said: "I came to get flour for my children because they have not tasted flour for more than a week, and thank God, God provided me with a kilo of rice with difficulty." But Samira Yahda, who was in Zawaida in central Gaza, said: "We saw the planes, but we didn't see what they dropped... they said trucks would pass, but we didn't see the trucks." Another Palestinian told the AP news agency that some people feared going out and having a box of aid fall on their children. 1:19 Gaza is expected to be a focus during talks Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in Scotland today. Downing Street said Sir Keir will raise "what more can be done to secure the ceasefire [in the Middle East] urgently", during the meeting at the US president's Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire. Reports also suggest the prime minister is planning to interrupt the summer recess and recall his cabinet to discuss the crisis on Tuesday. Talks in Qatar over a ceasefire ended on Thursday after the US and Israel withdrew their negotiating teams. 2:02 Mr Trump blamed Hamas for the collapse of negotiations as he left the US for Scotland, saying the militant group "didn't want to make a deal... they want to die". Meanwhile the exiled head of Hamas in Gaza, Khalil al Hayya, has warned ceasefire negotiations with Israel were "meaningless under continued blockade and starvation". In a recorded speech, he added: "The immediate and dignified delivery of food and medicine to our people is the only serious and genuine indication of whether continuing the negotiations is worthwhile." 0:51 During a meeting with the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen yesterday, Mr Trump emphasised the importance of securing the release of hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza. He said: "They don't want to give them back, and so Israel is going to have to make a decision. 1:17 "I know what I'd do, but I don't think it's appropriate that I say it. But Israel is going to have to make a decision," he said. Mr Trump also repeated claims, without evidence, that Hamas was stealing food coming into Gaza and selling it.
