Director of key Gaza hospital killed in Israel strike
Doctor Marwan Al-Sultan was killed in his apartment in Gaza City along with his wife, daughters and son-in-law, a relative who said he found them, Ahmed al-Sultan, told AFP.
The doctor's body was taken to the Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, his face barely recognizable, the director of that facility, Mohammad Abu Salmiya, told AFP.
The killing drew condemnation from Hamas and the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, where Israeli forces are battling to crush the Palestinian militant group.
'We strongly condemn this heinous crime against our medical personnel, and we ask Allah to grant him and his family mercy, after a long journey of service,' the ministry said.
The Israeli army told AFP: 'The claim that as a result of the strike uninvolved civilians were harmed is being reviewed.'
It said it 'struck a key terrorist from the Hamas terrorist organization in the area of Gaza City' on Wednesday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
15 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
94 Palestinians Killed in Gaza, Including 45 People Waiting for Aid
Airstrikes and shootings killed 94 Palestinians in Gaza overnight, including 45 while attempting to get much-needed humanitarian aid, hospitals and the Health Ministry said Thursday. Israel's military did not have immediate comment on the strikes, The Associated Press reported. Five people were killed while outside sites associated with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, the newly created, secretive American organization backed by Israel to feed the Gaza Strip's population, while 40 others were killed waiting for aid trucks in other locations across the Gaza Strip. Dozens of people were killed in airstrikes that pounded the Strip Wednesday night and Thursday morning, including 15 people killed in strikes that hit tents in the sprawling Muwasi zone, where many displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and a strike on a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced people. Gaza's Health Ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in Gaza has passed 57,000, including 223 missing people who have been declared dead. The ministry doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants in its death count but says that more than half of the dead are women and children. The deaths come as Israel and Hamas inch closer to a possible ceasefire that would end the 21-month war. Trump said Tuesday that Israel had agreed on terms for a 60-day ceasefire in Gaza and urged Hamas to accept the deal before conditions worsen. But Hamas' response, which emphasized its demand that the war end, raised questions about whether the latest offer could materialize into an actual pause in fighting. The Israeli military blames Hamas for the civilian casualties because it operates from populated areas. The military said it targeted Hamas members and rocket launchers in northern Gaza that launched rockets towards Israel on Wednesday. The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages. The war has left the coastal Palestinian territory in ruins, with much of the urban landscape flattened in the fighting. More than 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And the war has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, leaving hundreds of thousands of people hungry.
Arab News
18 hours ago
- Arab News
Shock in Jakarta, MPs demand action after Israel assassinates Indonesian hospital director
JAKARTA/DUBAI: Israel's assassination of Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza, has sparked shock in Jakarta, with parliamentarians calling for new international accountability mechanisms to hold Israel legally responsible for its crimes in Gaza. A renowned cardiac surgeon and one of Palestine's most senior doctors, Dr. Al-Sultan graduated from Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences in Hyderabad, Pakistan, in 2001. He was killed along with his wife and children in an Israeli airstrike on their temporary residence in northern Gaza on Wednesday. His surviving daughter, Lubna, told the media that the missile 'targeted his room exactly, right where he was.' Her testimony confirmed statements from the Gaza Ministry of Health and the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee — which funded the Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia — that the attack was a targeted assassination. 'The attack on Dr. Marwan was utterly savage and barbaric,' Dr. Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C's board of trustees, told Arab News. 'It was a shock to hear the news. I couldn't believe it. He was the only heart specialist left in the north. This is a huge loss.' The Indonesia Hospital in Beit Lahia, one of the biggest health facilities in Gaza, was one of the first targeted by Israel when it started its deadly war on the Palestinian enclave in October 2023. Dr. Al-Sultan had never left his post, remaining with patients through multiple Israeli offensives on the hospital and personally overseeing repairs to restore essential services, MER-C said in a statement recalling how in December 2024, he evacuated the facility while under Israeli siege. The moment was recorded on a mobile phone, showing Dr. Al-Sultan leaving only after he had ensured the safety of every patient. The Indonesia Hospital opened in late 2015. Coordinated by MER-C, its construction and equipment were financed from donations of the Indonesian people, with dozens of engineers and builders volunteering to design and build the facility and to prepare its operations. The killing of Dr. Al-Sultan has spurred outcry in Indonesia, with the government issuing an official condemnation and lawmakers from the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation calling on parliamentarians around the world to 'push for international accountability mechanisms' to ensure that 'crimes against humanity be immediately brought to international forums, including global parliamentary bodies, so that Israel can be held legally and morally accountable for its actions in Gaza.' Israel has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 133,000 others, since October 2023. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, with research published in The Lancet medical journal in January estimating an underreporting of deaths by 41 percent. The study says the death toll may be even higher, as it does not include deaths caused by starvation, injury and lack of access to health care, caused by the Israeli military's destruction of most of Gaza's infrastructure and the blocking of medical and food aid. Data from the UN and international health organizations shows that Israel has killed at least 492 doctors and medics in Gaza since October 2023. Dr. Al-Sultan is the 70th health care worker to be killed in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch. 'He was a prominent medical figure, both as a heart specialist and director of the Indonesia Hospital,' Dr. Hadiki Habib, chairman of MER-C's executive committee, told Arab News. 'We had feared that this could happen, but he had said that he would remain in Gaza and, if he were to be martyred, it would be in his homeland.'
Arab News
19 hours ago
- Arab News
Killings rise when Gaza Health Foundation distributes aid: Analysis
LONDON: An investigation has found an increase in deaths in Gaza correlated with aid distribution overseen by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Health Foundation. The GHF took over humanitarian supply systems in the Palestinian enclave in May, replacing around 400 distribution sites run by other charities and NGOs with four designated facilities, called Secure Distribution Sites. They were meant to ensure that aid did not fall into the hands of Hamas or other armed groups, which Israel alleges frequently happened under the previous UN-backed system. However, Gaza's health authorities say more than 600 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at the sites, which the UN has labeled 'death traps.' Israeli soldiers have been accused of opening fire directly at civilians. Analysis conducted by Sky News suggests that killings rise when aid is distributed by the GHF. Sky's Data & Forensics Unit found that an average of 48 deaths and 189 injuries are reported when the GHF operates two or fewer aid distributions. That number rises almost threefold when it runs five to six aid drops. Sky reported that between June 5 and July 1, 77 aid distributions were conducted by the GHF. Of those, 23 — or 30 percent of the total — resulted in reports of violence, and at SDS4 half of all drops saw bloodshed. A recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz interviewed Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to fire at crowds of unarmed Palestinians at the GHF sites. The Israeli military denies the allegations, but said it is investigating incidents where civilians have been harmed. The UN, in its most recent update on June 24, put the number of casualties at GHF sites at 410, citing data available from nearby hospitals. The GHF has been severely criticized for the manner in which aid is distributed, with footage obtained by Sky on June 15 showing Palestinians at SDS1 crowding and rummaging among hundreds of scattered aid packages discarded on the floor. Sky's analysis found that aid is often delivered in significantly smaller quantities than required, with supplies running out on average after just nine minutes. At 23 percent of aid drops, supplies were exhausted before the official opening time. Sky reported that 86 percent of distributions were announced to people in the area less than 30 minutes in advance, and that maps and instructions distributed to locals to navigate and access the sites were inaccurate or dangerous, including telling civilians trying to reach SDS2, 3 and 4 to congregate inside areas labeled live combat zones by Israel. In addition, the congregation areas are typically some distance from the sites, causing surges when they open as people attempt to cover the open ground to access the aid. The shortest distance from a waiting point to an SDS is 689 meters, at SDS4, approximately 10 minutes away on foot — more than the average time before supplies run out. Sam Rose, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, called the GHF's system a 'free-for-all.' He told Sky: 'What they're doing is, they're loading up the boxes on the ground and then people just rush in.' Rose added: 'They (the GHF) don't know what they're doing. They don't have anyone working on these operations who has any experience of operating, of administering food distributions because anyone who did have that experience wouldn't want to be part of it because this isn't how you treat people.' A group of charities and humanitarian groups on Tuesday condemned the GHF's operations, saying they violate international principles. More than 200 groups have called for the reinstatement of the previous aid distribution system overseen by the UN.
