The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness) expresses its strong condemnation of the Israeli crime that targeted the prominent Palestinian doctor, Dr. Marwan Omar Al-Sultan, Director General of the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. He was assassinated by the occupation forces on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 2, 2025, along with eight members of his family, including his wife, daughter, and sister, as a result of a direct airstrike targeting the apartment where he was staying as a displaced person in western Gaza City.
(Witness) affirms that this crime is part of a series of grave and systematic violations carried out by the occupation forces against medical teams and healthcare facilities in the Gaza Strip. It is considered part of the ongoing campaign of genocide against the Palestinian people, which is being perpetrated amid suspicious international silence and a clear inability to stop the violations and hold the perpetrators accountable.
According to field information, at 14:15 on the afternoon of Wednesday, July 2, 2025, occupation warplanes targeted a residential apartment located near the Chalets site in western Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom of 9 Palestinian civilians from the Al-Sultan family. Dr. Al-Sultan had previously been forced to flee from the north of the Strip due to the ongoing aggression and sought refuge with his family in the apartment that was targeted.
(Witness) affirms that targeting a displaced civilian doctor and his family members inside a residential apartment constitutes a war crime under the provisions of international humanitarian law and a flagrant violation of the Geneva Conventions and the rules protecting civilians and medical personnel during armed conflicts.
The targeting of Dr. Al-Sultan is not an isolated incident but comes within the context of a deliberate Israeli policy to eliminate Palestinian medical personnel and systematically destroy the healthcare system. Statistics from the Ministry of Health indicate that since the beginning of the aggression, the occupation forces have killed more than 1,582 medical personnel and arrested hundreds, including doctors and paramedics, while a number of detainees have died under torture in Israeli prisons.
(Witness) calls on the international community, especially the United Nations, the World Health Organization, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Special Rapporteurs on Health and Extrajudicial Executions, to act urgently to stop these crimes, provide protection to medical teams and Palestinian civilians, and ensure accountability and an end to impunity.
The Palestinian Association for Human Rights (Witness)