Gaza: Doctors Under Attack — Hours Before the Documentary Was to Air, Israel killed Dr Marwan Al-Sultan

Dr Al Sultan is one of many doctors in Gaza who have been targeted. The BBC refused to air the medics documentary and Channel four did so instead.

In the early hours of 2 July 2025, Israel killed Dr Marwan Al-Sultan, one of Gaza’s last cardiologists and the director of its besieged Indonesian Hospital, with a precision airstrike on his home near Roundabout 17 on Gaza City’s coastal Rashid Street.

The timing of Israel’s assassination of Dr Al-Sultan was no coincidence. It happened on the very same day Gaza: Doctors Under Attack was scheduled to air on Channel 4 and Zeteo. This is the same documentary that the BBC had commissioned and cleared for broadcast back in February 2025—before abruptly pulling it on 20 June.

Rather than act without fear or favour, the BBC chose to hide the truth about the IDF from the British public. Aside from anything else, it’s incredibly dehumanising to suggest that Palestinians describing the suffering they’ve faced is “bias”. No wonder over 100 BBC staff have written a letter calling for the resignation of Tim Davie. What we are seeing is complicity in genocide.

Dr Adnan al-Bursh, Gaza’s top orthopaedic surgeon, was abducted by Israeli forces on 5 December 2023 and tortured to death in Ofer Prison on 19 April 2024. His body has never been returned to his family.

Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh remains held in Israel’s notorious torture prisons without charge or trial. His lawyer says he has been tortured.

Dr Al-Sultan’s surviving daughter, Lubna, spoke in an interview shortly after the bombing. She said that the missile struck the room where her father was staying. No other room in the apartment was damaged. It was a targeted killing.

Six members of his family were also killed, including his wife, daughter, son-in-law, and two siblings. His youngest son survived, and joined grieving colleagues and relatives to bid farewell at Al-Shifa Hospital.

Dr Al-Sultan was originally from Jabalia al-Balad, a densely populated area in northern Gaza that has been the target of sustained Israeli bombardment since October 2023.

He was a highly respected heart surgeon and one of only two remaining cardiologists in Gaza, according to Dr Muath Alser, a U.S.-based Palestinian physician and member of Healthcare Workers Watch.

He led the Indonesian Hospital, which opened in 2016 with support from MER-C Indonesia and Indonesian civil society. It quickly became Gaza’s most critical medical facility in the north, offering trauma care, cardiac units, and paediatric services for thousands of civilians.

Al-Sultan worked throughout the war with no breaks, often sleeping inside the hospital, surrounded by rubble, blood, and the screams of the wounded.

He refused to abandon the hospital even after Israeli forces besieged it in November 2023, when multiple patients and staff were killed in shelling at the facility’s entrance.

A photo taken outside the hospital in November 2023 shows the aftermath of Israeli bombing, which shattered the facility and killed or injured staff and patients.

His colleague, Dr Issam Nabhan, told The Washington Post:

“Gaza lost a great man and doctor. He never left the hospital since the war began. He urged us to stay and serve, even when bombs were falling and no one could guarantee our safety.”

Dr Mohammed Abu Salmiya, Director of Al-Shifa Hospital, said:

“Thousands of heart patients will suffer. Gaza lost a prominent scholar and expert. His loss cannot be replaced.”

Dr Abu Salmiya was detained by Israeli forces in November 2023 and released in July 2024. His experience drew attention to the status of other Palestinian detainees.

Dr Al-Sultan’s killing comes amid a catastrophic collapse of Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure. Over 500 health workers have been killed since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in October 2023.

At least 36 hospitals and 72 clinics have been damaged or destroyed. Many medics, including senior surgeons and paediatricians, have been killed in airstrikes or detained indefinitely.

The Palestinian Health Ministry called his death:

“A war crime and a continuation of Israel’s systematic targeting of medical personnel.”

MER-C Indonesia, in a statement on 2 July, expressed “deep sorrow” at his loss, calling him:

“A courageous and tireless doctor who remained at his post long after it became unsafe. He symbolised the spirit of resistance and duty.”

Dr Muath Alser, from Healthcare Workers Watch, said:

“This is not just a tragic loss. It is part of a much longer, deliberate effort to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system and to obliterate decades of medical expertise. The healthcare system in Gaza is being annihilated in front of the world.”

Dr Abu Salmiya also shared a haunting graduation photo as he reflected on the scale of the targeting:

“This is far more than just an ordinary photo.

It stands as a testament to the ongoing genocide targeting medical leaders and academics — dedicated mentors who taught and guided hundreds of medical students in Gaza.

The photo is from a graduation ceremony at the Faculty of Medicine in Gaza. Four people in this image have been killed in cold blood by the occupation: Dr Omar Farwana, former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine; Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, Head of Orthopedic Surgery at Al-Shifa Medical Complex; Dr Raafat Lubbad, Head of Internal Medicine at Al-Shifa Medical Complex; and now, Dr Marwan Al-Sultan, Consultant Cardiologist and Director of the Indonesian Hospital.”

Several others in the photo were captured and detained in Israeli torture camps.

Dr Marwan Al-Sultan’s killing follows the same pattern as that of another leading Palestinian doctor, Dr Adnan al-Bursh.

Dr Al-Bursh was one of Gaza’s top orthopaedic surgeons and head of orthopaedics at Al-Shifa Hospital. He was taken by Israeli forces on 5 December 2023, detained at Sde Teiman and later at Ofer Prison near Jerusalem. Prisoners reported he arrived severely injured—“naked in the lower part of his body,” unable to stand, and bleeding. It is believed he was tortured, raped and killed by Israeli occupation soldiers on 18 April 2024.

His body has not been returned to his family and remains withheld by Israeli authorities as of early 2025. Despite pressure from his family and human rights groups, including a request to Israel’s courts and its agreement to perform a family-supervised autopsy in May 2024, Israel has not returned his remains, nor provided a cause of death. Many observers view this refusal as part of a broader pattern—using the fate of Palestinian bodies as a means of collective punishment and silencing

Meanwhile, Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, a paediatrician and director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, remains unlawfully detained in Israel after being seized from his hospital in December 2024. His family and colleagues continue to raise alarms about his health and the conditions of his detention.

Three doctors. One tortured. One assassinated. One still imprisoned.

Dr Al-Sultan had been displaced like hundreds of thousands of others. He moved with his family to a modest flat in Gaza City’s coastal zone—far from Jabalia, which had become uninhabitable due to bombardment.

The area around Rashid Street and Roundabout 17 was crammed with displaced civilians seeking refuge amid relentless bombardment. It was there, in the early hours of 2 July, that Israeli missiles struck, killing him and his family members as they slept.

The Israeli military tried to excuse the killing with an unsubstantiated claim that it targeted a “militant operative,” but gave no evidence. Friends and colleagues say this was a blatant assassination — deliberate, precise, and in line with Israel’s systematic targeting of Gaza’s healthcare leadership.

Dr Al-Sultan’s body was taken to Al-Shifa Hospital, where health officials and grieving colleagues gathered. In a scene described as “quiet devastation”, his youngest son clutched his father’s white shroud. Nurses wept. Staff stood in silence.

For many, the killing of Dr Al-Sultan marked a new low in a war that has already decimated every facet of civilian life.

His killing is not just the loss of a beloved doctor. It is the deliberate erasure of Gaza’s medical lifelines, carried out with impunity and sanctioned by silence from Western governments.

Let the world know: Dr Marwan Al-Sultan stayed, served, and saved lives — until the very end.