After her parents, her sister and her husband were killed in a bombardment, Lubnah prayed to be the last victims of the war. His father, Dr. Marwan Al-Sultan, was one of the most respected doctors of Gaza, director of the Indonesian hospital and one of the only two surviving cardiologists of the strip.
On July 2, an Israeli bomb killed him, alongside his wife Dhikra, their daughter blade, his sister Amneh and his son -in -law Mohammed, Lubnah’s husband.
The family is discouraged in an apartment, in an area designated by Israel as “safe”, after having evacuated their house to Jabalia in accordance with the orders of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF). The so-called “Chalet district” in the west of the city of Gaza was once a place where families spent time at the beach, having fun, despite the daily tests of the Israeli occupation.
The bomb directly targeted the room in which the rac, the rac, was seated; No other part of the building was destroyed. Lubnah survived because she had come down to prepare the food. His brothers, Omar, Ahmad and Nimr also survived because they were outside the house.
The day before his death, by learning the news of a possible ceasefire, Dr. Marwan shared a vision full of hope with his son, Omar.
“The first thing we will do (once a ceasefire has been reached) is to go home. With everyone’s efforts, in a month or two, we can do it as before. Then we rebuild the hospital,” he said. Omar felt inspired by his father.
Dr. Marwan’s dreams were buried with him.
The prayers of his daughter Lubnah did not receive an answer. The genocide continued to take victims.
On July 4, another doctor was murdered: Dr Musa Hamdan Khafaja – Obstetrics consultant and gynecology at Nasser Hospital. The attack was strangely similar. Dr. Musa had also followed the orders of the IOF, fled his house in Khan Younis and looked for refuge in Al-Mawasi, another “security zone”. There he launched a tent to house his family. This tent has become their grave.
His wife and three young children – the daughters Shaza and Judi, and his son Adel, are all dead. The only survivor was his son Amr.
The two men had devoted their careers to save the lives of others, staying with their patients through bomb attacks and seats in their hospitals.
Dr. Marwan was the 70th health worker killed in the previous 50 days; Dr. Musa has become the 71st. Their death carries the total number of medical staff killed since October 2023 to at least 1,580, according to the government’s media office in Gaza. Every two days since the start of the war, Israel has killed five medical staff, 16 doctors, nurses, ambulance technicians or other health workers per week.
Among those who have been murdered since the beginning of the genocide are the most distinguished medical spirits in Gaza. They include Dr. Omar Farwana, former dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the Islamic University of Gaza; Dr. Rafat Lubbad, director of the Hamad hospital for artificial members; Dr. Soma Baroud, eminent obstetrician-gynaecologist; Dr Ahmed Al-Maqadma, an eminent reconstructive surgeon; Dr. Sayeed Joudeh, the last orthopedic surgeon in northern Gaza; Dr Adnan Al-Bursh, head of orthopedic surgery at the Al-Shifa hospital; And Dr. Iyad al-Rrandi, head of a female hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Dr. Soma and Dr. Sayeed were killed on the way to work. Dr. Adnan and Dr. Iyad died under torture in Israeli detention.
More than 180 are in Israeli detention centers, including Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, detained since December 2024.
Medical infrastructure – protected by international humanitarian law – continues to be a main target. The World Health Organization has documented 734 of these attacks since the start of the war. Hospitals have been transformed into cemeteries.
These are not collateral damage; This is Medidian – the deliberate destruction of the ability of Gaza to live. Each murdered doctor represents the loss of years of training, commitment and the potential to save lives. Each bombed hospital is the dismantling of Gaza’s ability to heal, survive, endure. These are not only lost lives; They are future destroyed.
This is the reality in Gaza at the moment. This is not much to do with the declared military objectives of Israel to eliminate the Islamic resistance movement – Hamas – or to obtain the return of the captives taken on October 7, 2023.
It is rather what I called al -Ibādah – destruction. Al -Ibādah is the complete annihilation of the social, cultural, intellectual and biological continuity of a people – a process of total erasure. And the extermination of medical workers is a key element.
Before being killed, alongside his father, Lubnah’s husband, Mohammed – journalist for Palestine magazine – underwent a prison sentence of a year and a half in Israel. When he releases, he told Lubnah that death would have been preferable to the horrors he had witnessed behind bars. His confessions rocked her deeply.
Today, Lubnah’s prayer is heartbreaking: “Enough. Enough., Stop this war. ” But so far, like its other prayers, it remains unanswered.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Tel Aviv Tribune.