Cardiologist's killing will have 'devastating impact' on healthcare in Gaza, says medical organisation

The death of Dr Marwan al-Sultan will leave a "devastating impact" on Gaza's healthcare system, said Muath Alser, director of the Palestinian medical organisation, Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), on Wednesday. 

Sultan was one of only two cardiologists left in the Gaza Strip, and the director of the Indonesian hospital in north Gaza. He was killed in an Israeli air strike on his apartment on Wednesday, along with his wife and at least three of his children. 

Paying homage to the renowned cardiologist, Alser told The Guardian: “The killing of Dr Marwan al-Sultan by the Israeli military is a catastrophic loss to Gaza and the entire medical community, and will have a devastating impact on Gaza’s healthcare system.

“This is part of a much longer and systematic atrocious targeting of healthcare workers sanctioned by impunity.

"This is a tragic loss of life, but also an obliteration of their decades of lifesaving medical expertise and care at a time when the situation facing Palestinian civilians is unfathomably catastrophic,” Alser added.

His surviving daughter, Lubna Sultan, paid tribute to her father at the hospital. "His whole life was devoted to medicine and the struggle to treat patients," she told AFP. "There is no justification for targeting him and his martyrdom," she added.

Alser said al-Sultan was the 70th healthcare worker to be killed in Israeli attacks in the last 50 days. Healthcare workers have been disproportionately targeted by Israel.