GAZA CITY, July 3 — A city already drowning in grief woke up to another devastating tragedy.
Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, a respected and deeply loved physician who dedicated his life to healing others at the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza, was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Wednesday, alongside his wife, daughters, and son-in-law. The family was inside their apartment in Gaza City when the strike hit.
His surviving relative, Ahmed al-Sultan, was the one who found the bodies. “I saw them with my own eyes… they were gone. The whole home, gone,” he said quietly, his voice trembling.
Seven lives were claimed in the strike, including at least three of Dr. Sultan’s children, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency. His body, barely recognizable, was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, where fellow doctors and grieving citizens gathered in sorrow and disbelief.
“He spent his whole life saving others,” said Dr. Mohammad Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa. “We had to look twice… his face, his body — we could hardly believe it was him.”
His daughter, Lubna Sultan, stood beside her father’s lifeless body, her voice cracking. “My father never picked up a weapon. He picked up stethoscopes, not guns. He didn’t deserve this. None of them did.”
Dr. Sultan was more than just a doctor — he was a symbol of hope in a city under siege, a man who refused to abandon his patients even when bombs fell around his hospital.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza called the killing “a heinous crime,” demanding accountability and mourning the loss of a man who stood by his people until the end.
In response, the Israeli military stated that it had targeted a “key Hamas terrorist” and is now “reviewing” reports that civilians were harmed.
But for many in Gaza, this isn’t just a “review.” It’s their reality — another funeral, another home destroyed, another family erased.
The humanitarian group that operates the Indonesian Hospital called Dr. Sultan’s death “a grave act of injustice,” pleading for the world not to stay silent.
As the dust settles over the rubble, one thing is clear: a man of healing, a father, a husband — a soul dedicated to life — has been lost in the very war he worked tirelessly to soften.
