Director of north Gaza hospital killed alongside his family in Israeli strike on apartment
Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan among more than 1,500 medical workers killed in Gaza since October 2023: Health Ministry
The director of one of north Gaza's largest hospitals was killed, along with his wife, daughter and sister, in an Israeli strike on their apartment, medical officials said Wednesday.
Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan was the director of the Indonesian Hospital — the largest medical facility north of Gaza City and a critical lifeline for civilians in the area since the start of the nearly 21-month-long war in the territory.
Diaa Al-Najjar, Al-Sultan's nephew, said his uncle never stopped working amid the war, even for a moment.
"He kept resisting. Until the last second, the last moment," Al-Najjar told CBC News in Gaza City. "May God grant us patience and may God have mercy on our martyrs."
The bodies of Al-Sultan and his family arrived at Al-Shifa Hospital in pieces, according to Issam Nabhan, head of the nursing department at the Indonesian Hospital.
"Gaza lost a great man and doctor," Nabhan said. "He never left the hospital one moment since the war began, and urged us to stay and provide humanitarian assistance. We don't know what he did to deserve getting killed."
1,500 health-care workers killed since 2023
The hospital was surrounded by Israeli troops in May and evacuated alongside the other two primary hospitals in northern Gaza after Israeli forces renewed their offensive in the region, saying at the time they were targeting Hamas infrastructure.
Only 20 of Gaza's 36 hospitals were partially functioning in May while others were forced to shutter as a result of damage from Israeli strikes.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and other aid groups have accused Israel of targeting hospitals and condemned the attacks and arrests of medical workers.
Munir Al-Barash, general director of Gaza's Health Ministry, said the killing of Al-Sultan is the latest death in a long list of health-care workers targeted in the Gaza Strip.
"Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan was under [Israeli army] siege in the Indonesian Hospital ... and he insisted on continuing operations and did not stop," Al-Barash told CBC News freelance videographer Mohamed El Saife on Wednesday outside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
"The Israeli [military] is targeting medical figures."
More than 1,500 health care workers have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The ministry also said the death toll in Gaza passed the 57,000 mark Tuesday into Wednesday after hospitals received 142 bodies overnight.
In central Gaza, the Al-Awda Hospital said an Israeli strike Wednesday near the entrance of a school housing displaced Palestinians killed eight people, including three children and wounded 30 others. The hospital also said that Israel struck a group of Palestinians who gathered near the entrance of the hospital's administration building in Nuseirat refugee camp.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reports.
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 per cent of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been displaced, often multiple times. And it has sparked a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, pushing hundreds of thousands of people toward hunger.
Controversial GHF to shutter Geneva branch
On Tuesday, nearly 170 non-governmental organizations called for the dismantling of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation-run aid system, saying it forces Palestinians to be caught between starvation and danger. The controversial U.S.- and Israel-backed group distributing aid in Gaza said on Wednesday it was planning to shut its branch in Geneva after Swiss authorities launched proceedings to dissolve it.
Since late May, when GHF launched operations, at least 640 Palestinians have been killed in shootings and over 4,400 have been injured near GHF aid sites or on routes to the sites guarded by Israeli forces, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The group has been distributing food and aid under a system that Israel says is intended to prevent aid from being diverted to militants.
The Swiss Federal Supervisory Authority for Foundations (ESA) said in a notice published on Wednesday that it could order the dissolution of the GHF unless creditors come forward within 30 days.
Hamas reviewing Trump-backed ceasefire plan
The latest deaths in Gaza come as Hamas said it was studying what U.S. President Donald Trump called a "final" ceasefire proposal for Gaza.
Trump had said Tuesday that Israel had agreed to the conditions needed to finalize a 60-day ceasefire with Hamas after what he described as a "long and productive" meeting between his representatives and Israeli officials.
In a statement, Hamas said it was studying new ceasefire offers it received from the mediators Egypt and Qatar but stressed it aimed to reach an agreement that would ensure an end to the war and an Israeli pullout from Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the elimination of Hamas in his first public remarks since Trump's announcement.
"There will not be a Hamas. There will not be a Hamastan. We're not going back to that. It's over," Netanyahu said at an event hosted by the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company, which operates the trans-Israel pipeline.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from CBC's Mohamed El Saife, The Associated Press and Reuters