ONE of Gaza’s most senior doctors has died in an Israeli airstrike in what has been described as a “catastrophic loss” to an already decimated healthcare system.
Dr Marwan al-Sultan, a renowned and highly experienced cardiologist and director of the Indonesian hospital in the Gaza Strip, has been killed by Israeli forces in what has been described as an “atrocious targeting of healthcare workers”.
Al-Sultan is the 70th healthcare worker to be killed by Israeli attacks in the last 50 days, according to Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical organisation.
Three other doctors were among the 70 healthcare workers killed, along with the chief nurses of the Indonesian hospital and al-Nasser children’s hospital, one of Gaza’s most senior midwives, a senior radiology technician and dozens of young medical graduates and trainee nurses.
On the first day of Eid, June 6, nine healthcare workers were killed in one day in airstrikes in the north of Gaza, while they were sheltering with their families, according to HWW.
Al-Sultan's death is a tragic loss where his expertise has been invaluable with the unfathomable catastrophe facing Palestinians, the director of HWW, Muath Alser said.
“The killing of Dr Marwan al-Sultan by the Israeli military is a catastrophic loss to Gaza and the entire medical community, and will have a devastating impact on Gaza’s healthcare system,” said Alser.
“This is part of a much longer and systematic atrocious targeting of healthcare workers sanctioned by impunity. This is a tragic loss of life, but also an obliteration of their decades of lifesaving medical expertise and care at a time when the situation facing Palestinian civilians is unfathomably catastrophic,” Alser added.
“We are in great shock and grief. He cannot be replaced,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza.
“He was a prominent scholar and one of the two remaining cardiologists left in Gaza. Thousands of heart patients will suffer as a result of his killing. His only fault was that he was a doctor. We have no option but to be steadfast, but the sense of loss is devastating.”
The total number of healthcare workers who have lost their lives in military attacks since the war began in October 2023 now exceeds 1400, according to the latest UN figures.
Insecurity Insight, a conflict data NGO, said it has verified the deaths of hundreds of healthcare workers who have been killed inside health facilities.
It added that healthcare workers have been killed by Israeli forces while attempting to reach wounded civilians, when travelling in ambulances, while evacuating patients, at checkpoints and inside schools and refugee camps used as temporary shelters since October 2023.
Medglobal, a medical NGO based in the US that provides medical services and care in Gaza, says it believes more than 300 medical staff are in Israeli prisons.
Among those imprisoned are senior physicians including Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of the Kamal Adwan hospital, who has been held in detention since December 2024.
It is believed that hundreds more healthcare workers from Gaza remain in Israeli detention, where they have reported being tortured, beaten and held without charge.
