After her dad and mom, sister and husband have been killed in a bombing, Lubnah prayed they might be the final victims of the conflict. Her father, Dr Marwan al-Sultan, was one among Gaza’s most revered medics, director of the Indonesian Hospital, and one among solely two surviving cardiologists within the Strip.
On July 2, an Israeli bomb killed him, alongside his spouse Dhikra, their daughter Lamees, his sister Amneh, and his son-in-law Mohammed, Lubnah’s husband.
The household had been sheltering in an condominium, in an space designated by Israel as “protected”, having evacuated their residence in Jabalia in compliance with orders from the Israeli occupation forces (IOF). The so-called “Chalet space” of western Gaza Metropolis was as soon as a spot the place households frolicked on the seaside, having fun with themselves, regardless of the every day trials of Israeli occupation.
The bomb focused straight the room Dr Marwan was sitting in; no different a part of the constructing was destroyed. Lubnah survived as a result of she had gone downstairs to arrange meals. Her brothers, Omar, Ahmad and Nimr additionally survived as a result of they have been outdoors the house.
The day earlier than his dying, upon listening to the information of a doable ceasefire, Dr Marwan shared a hopeful imaginative and prescient along with his son, Omar.
“The very first thing we’ll do [once a ceasefire is reached] is return residence. With everybody’s effort, in a month or two, we will make it as earlier than. Then we’ll rebuild the hospital,” he stated. Omar felt impressed by his father.
Dr Marwan’s goals have been buried with him.
His daughter Lubnah’s prayers weren’t answered. The genocide continued taking victims.
On July 4, one other physician was murdered: Dr Musa Hamdan Khafaja – a advisor in obstetrics and gynecology in Nasser Hospital. The assault was eerily comparable. Dr Musa had additionally adopted the orders of the IOF, fled his residence in Khan Younis, and sought refuge in al-Mawasi, one other “protected zone”. There, he pitched a tent to shelter his household. That tent grew to become their grave.
His spouse and three younger kids – daughters Shaza and Judi, and son Adel, all died. The one survivor was his son Amr.
Each males had devoted their careers to saving the lives of others, staying with their sufferers by means of bombings and sieges on their hospitals.
Dr Marwan was the seventieth healthcare employee killed within the earlier 50 days; Dr Musa grew to become the 71st. Their deaths carry the overall variety of medical personnel killed since October 2023 to no less than 1,580, based on the Authorities Media Workplace in Gaza. Each two days because the conflict started, Israel has killed 5 medical personnel, that’s 16 medical doctors, nurses, ambulance technicians or different healthcare employees, per week.
Amongst these murdered because the genocide started are Gaza’s most distinguished medical minds. They embody Dr Omar Farwana, former dean of the School of Medication on the Islamic College of Gaza; Dr Rafat Lubbad, director of Hamad Hospital for Synthetic Limbs; Dr Soma Baroud, distinguished obstetrician-gynaecologist; Dr Ahmed al-Maqadma, a distinguished reconstructive surgeon; Dr Sayeed Joudeh, the final orthopaedic surgeon in northern Gaza; Dr Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopaedic surgical procedure in al-Shifa Hospital; and Dr Iyad al-Rantisi, head of a ladies’s hospital in Beit Lahiya.
Dr Soma and Dr Sayeed have been killed on their technique to work. Dr Adnan and Dr Iyad died underneath torture in Israeli detention.
Greater than 180 are in Israeli detention centres, together with Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, who has been detained since December 2024.
Medical infrastructure – protected underneath worldwide humanitarian regulation – continues to be a major goal. The World Well being Group has documented 734 such assaults because the conflict started. Hospitals have been was graveyards.
This isn’t collateral harm; that is medicide – the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s capability to stay. Every murdered physician represents the lack of years of coaching, dedication and the potential to avoid wasting lives. Every bombed hospital is the dismantling of Gaza’s capability to heal itself, to outlive, to endure. These usually are not simply lives misplaced; they’re futures destroyed.
That is the truth in Gaza proper now. It has little to do with Israel’s declared army targets of eliminating the Islamic resistance motion – Hamas – or securing the return of the captives taken on October 7, 2023.
Reasonably, it’s what I termed al-Ibādah – the Destruction. Al-Ibādah is the great annihilation of a individuals’s social, cultural, mental and organic continuity – a technique of whole erasure. And exterminating medical employees is a key component of it.
Earlier than he was killed, alongside her father, Lubnah’s husband, Mohammed – a journalist for Palestine Journal – endured one and a half years’ imprisonment in Israel. Upon his launch, he confided to Lubnah that dying would have been preferable to the horrors he had witnessed behind bars. His confession shook her deeply.
At the moment, Lubnah’s prayer is heartbreakingly easy: “Sufficient. Sufficient, cease this conflict.” However up to now, like her different prayers, this one can also be going unanswered.
The views expressed on this article are the creator’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
