The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) strongly condemns and denounces the heinous crime committed by Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in the killing of Dr. Marwan ‘Omar Rab’ie al-Sultan, General Director of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and Consultant in Cardiovascular Diseases and Surgery, alongside eight members of his family, including his wife, daughter, sister and others. This was a deliberate and targeted airstrike on a residential apartment, where Dr. al-Sultan sought shelter after being forcibly displaced to western Gaza City.
PCHR stresses that this crime is yet another addition to the series of grave violations committed by IOF against medical personnel as part of a systematic policy to decimate Gaza’s healthcare system. This is part of the broader and ongoing crime of genocide that has been perpetrated for the past 21 months amid the disgraceful silence of the international community, which continues to tolerate these atrocities without meaningful accountability.
According to information obtained by PCHR’s staff, at around 14:15 on Wednesday, 2 July 2025, Israeli warplanes targeted a residential apartment located near the former Chalets area in western Gaza City. As a result, nine people were killed, including Dr. Marwan ‘Omar Rab’ie al-Sultan (49), his wife Thekra Nemer al-Sultan (45), their 19-year-old daughter, Lamis, his sister, Amnah ‘Omar al-Sultan, Malak Eyad al-Sultan (15), ‘Aisha ‘Emad al-Sultan (25), her brother Mohammed (28) and Asmaa’ Joudi al-Sultan (37).
Dr. al-Sultan and his family sought shelter in this rented apartment in western Gaza City after they had been forcibly displaced from northern Gaza due to the recurrent Israeli incursions in the area that have destroyed houses and civilian and healthcare facilities.
The targeting of a displaced civilian doctor and his family while sheltering in a residential apartment constitutes a war crime under the international humanitarian law. It is also a blatant violation of the Geneva Conventions as well as the rules pertaining to the protection of civilians and medical personnel during armed conflicts.
Dr. Marwan al-Sultan is one of the most distinguished Palestinian medical professionals and a leading humanitarian figure in the Gaza Strip. He was a Cardiovascular Surgery Specialist and became the director of the Indonesian Hospital after IOF had arrested the Hospital’s former director, Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, in a previous raid of the hospital in November 2023.
Despite repeated threats, Dr. al-Sultan remained committed to his duties managing the Hospital and ensuring the continued provision of healthcare services under complicated humanitarian conditions. His leading role was significantly critical after northern Gaza’s hospitals had gone out of service, including al-Shifa Medical Complex, due to bombardment, destruction and shutdown.
During the forced shutdown of northern Gaza’s hospitals, Dr. al-Sultan also served in Beit al-Kheir Medical Center in Jabalia, which had become the last remaining medical facility for patients in northern Gaza. Through this, he exemplified extraordinary humanitarian and professional dedication, continuing to provide medical care under relentless bombardment, crimpling lack of resources and severe shortage of medical personnel and equipment.
The Indonesian Hospital has been under dozens of attacks, including bombardment, raids, and deliberate arson. As a result, many patients and members of medical personnel have been killed while the hospital’s infrastructure has been progressively destroyed. The latest major attack was in May when IOF destroyed the hospital’s generators and main departments, forcing the medical personnel, including al-Sultan, to evacuate.
The Assassination of Dr. al-Sultan is not an isolated incident but is part of a systematic and deliberate Israeli policy to eliminate the medical personnel and dismantle the Palestinian healthcare system- a tool within Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign on the Gaza Strip.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, since the beginning of the Israeli aggression on 7 October 2023, IOF have killed at least 1,582 medical personnel and injured 362 others, including doctors and paramedics, among them two died under torture in Israeli prisons.
PCHR warns that the systematic killing of medical personnel is a direct factor contributing to the catastrophic collapse of the healthcare system in Gaza, which has become totally unable to provide even the most basic medical services amidst the persistent Israeli attacks and absence of any effective international intervention.
The situation in Gaza is beyond catastrophic and amounts to the systematic eradication of the Palestinian existence and total destruction of life-sustaining sectors, including the healthcare system, all unfolding amid the international community’s shameful inaction and absence of accountability mandated by the international law.
Given this serious escalation, PCHR calls on the international community, particularly the United Nations (UN), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UN Special Rapporteurs on the right to health and on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, to take immediate and effective measures to stop these atrocious crimes, hold their perpetrators accountable, and ensure protection of Palestinian medical personnel and civilians.
PCHR emphasizes that the international community’s silence, the complicity of some governments and the failure to activate the international justice mechanisms have emboldened the Israeli occupation to persist in its crimes with complete impunity.
