Dr Marwan al-Sultan, director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, was killed on Wednesday when an Israeli airstrike targeted his home near the 17th intersection west of Gaza City. Several members of his family were also martyred in the strike.
In an official statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza condemned the killing as ‘a new heinous crime’ and part of an ongoing campaign of systematic attacks against medical and humanitarian personnel since the start of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip.
‘This crime is a continuation of the bloody methodology and premeditated targeting of medical workers,’ the ministry said. It hailed Dr al-Sultan as ‘a symbol of dedication, steadfastness, and loyalty’ who stood on the frontlines in some of the darkest moments of the aggression.
Dr al-Sultan was one of Gaza’s most respected physicians and played a crucial leadership role at the Indonesian Hospital, which has been instrumental in treating thousands of patients wounded by Israeli occupation forces, particularly during the recent escalations.
His martyrdom comes amid an intensifying Israeli campaign against Gaza’s already fragile health system. Dozens of hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or rendered inoperable, and medical professionals continue to be systematically targeted – often killed in their homes or while on duty – despite protections afforded to them under international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions.
The Indonesian Hospital itself has been the target of repeated Israeli assaults, even as it tried to function under siege conditions with minimal resources, overcrowding, and no safe evacuation routes.
Human rights organisations and medical bodies have repeatedly warned that the targeting of healthcare workers and infrastructure amounts to war crimes.
The killing of Dr al-Sultan, a senior and high-profile figure in Gaza’s medical community, has further heightened concerns about the deliberate dismantling of the Strip’s health system.
Since October 7, 2023, Israel, backed by the United States, has been carrying out a campaign of genocide in the Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths or injuries of over 191,000 Palestinians, the majority of them children and women.
More than 11,000 remain missing, and hundreds of thousands have been forcibly displaced, as basic services, including healthcare, continue to collapse under sustained assault.
The Israeli occupation army continued, on Tuesday night and on Wednesday, to carry out deadly attacks on different areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and injuring dozens of civilians.
According to local media sources, Israeli forces also continued to detonate and bomb more homes and displace families in the Gaza Strip, further deepening the dire humanitarian crisis as the population grapples with worsening famine.
Since dawn Wednesday, at least 67 Palestinian civilians, including several aid seekers, have been reportedly martyred in Israeli attacks on different areas of the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian Information Centre (PIC) reporter in Gaza, Israeli attacks have continued across the Gaza Strip, including an Israeli strike on a tent in Khan Younis that killed five civilians from the family of Abu Ta’ima.
Another strike targeted a house belonging to the family of Zaino in Gaza City’s Yaffa street, killing a man along with his wife and two children.
Casualties were also reported following an Israeli strike on a tent sheltering a displaced family near the Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah City in central Gaza.
Several people were also martyred in Israeli strikes on different areas of Khan Younis, including two in an attack on a house belonging to the family of Abu Shamala.
Dozens of people were also martyred or injured in Israeli attacks on aid seekers near US-backed distribution points in southern and central Gaza.
The Israeli army also launched attacks on other areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding more civilians, including children and women.
Meanwhile, several Gazans were pronounced dead after they succumbed to injuries they sustained in recent attacks.
The United Nations has issued a renewed warning about the deteriorating conditions in Gaza, stressing that the besieged territory is suffering from a severe lack of shelter and livelihood opportunities due to ongoing Israeli attacks.
In a statement published on Wednesday on its official website, the UN documented a series of Israeli violations against civilians in Gaza since Sunday, including repeated strikes on school buildings sheltering displaced families.
‘Many families who had taken refuge in schools bombed by Israel have returned to the northern Gaza Strip, largely because they have nowhere else to go,’ the UN said, highlighting the near-total absence of alternative housing and means of survival.
According to the statement, five school buildings sheltering displaced civilians in northern Gaza were bombed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) in just 48 hours, resulting in deaths and injuries.
The IOF continues to issue frequent evacuation orders across Gaza under the pretext of rocket fire, often followed within minutes by deadly airstrikes – sometimes even before residents can flee.
These tactics have intensified recently under the latest phase of the Israeli military operation, dubbed ‘Gideon’s Chariots’, which Israeli officials claim is aimed at defeating Hamas and advancing their forced displacement plan.
As a result, the IOF now controls roughly 77% of the Gaza Strip. Most residents of Gaza City’s eastern and central areas have been ordered to evacuate westward, then south toward the Al-Mawasi zone – already overcrowded and lacking basic infrastructure.
Over the past several months, dozens of such evacuation orders have forced mass displacement, leaving Palestinians crammed into less than 18% of the territory, according to United Nations reports.
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that Israeli operations have ‘intensified’ following Sunday’s evacuation orders, displacing at least 1,500 families from both the northern Gaza Strip and eastern Gaza governorate.
He warned of ‘dwindling humanitarian assistance and basic services, which increasingly deprive Gaza’s population of the means to survive.’
Dujarric stressed that the current conditions are ‘an alarm bell that requires urgent action to open all crossings and facilitate humanitarian operations, including the delivery of essential life-saving supplies.’
Since October 7, 2023, Israel – with direct support from the United States – has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. This campaign has included mass killing, starvation, displacement, and systematic destruction, in open defiance of repeated international appeals and legally binding orders from the International Court of Justice.
To date, the genocide has left approximately 191,000 Palestinians martyred or wounded – most of them women and children – and more than 11,000 remain missing. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
The Parliamentarians for Jerusalem and Palestine Association has issued an urgent international appeal to save Gaza’s children from what it describes as an unfolding genocide.
The call was directed at parliamentary leaders, regional and global legislative bodies, and international human rights organisations, urging swift and decisive action as the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza deepens.
Citing on-the-ground reports, including an alert by the International Justice Forum Against Genocide, the Association warned that over 60,000 children in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition and a collapse of basic health services.
With the near-total absence of baby formula, therapeutic food, and medical care, infant deaths due to hunger and lack of treatment have been documented.
In its press statement on Wednesday, the Association asserted that the situation in Gaza constitutes a war crime under international humanitarian law, the Geneva Conventions, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
It held Israel fully responsible for deliberately using starvation as a weapon of war and blocking the entry of food and medical supplies to Gaza’s besieged population.
The Association urged parliaments and international legislative organisations to issue public condemnations of the starvation tactics and to demand the opening of sustained humanitarian corridors.
It also called on governments to support emergency child nutrition programmes, send infant formula and supplements, and launch parliamentary delegations or send unified appeals to the United Nations, the World Health Organisation, and UNICEF to activate an immediate rescue plan for Gaza’s children.
The statement concluded with a stern warning: ‘International silence and inaction in the face of this unfolding genocide amount to complicity.’
It called on the global community to fulfil its humanitarian, legal, and moral obligations by standing with the Palestinian people and confronting the Israeli occupation over what it described as one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history.
UNICEF echoed the alarm last week, reporting that some 470,000 children in Gaza have been living in near-famine conditions since March. The UN agency stressed that ‘there is no alternative to direct pressure’ to ensure immediate access to food and humanitarian aid.