Engineer and family killed as Israel breaks ceasefire
ActionAid is heartbroken and outraged to learn that Mohammad Ahmad Abu Marshood, an engineer and projects coordinator at Al Awda Health and Community Association and hospital —run by ActionAid’s partner —has been killed by Israeli forces alongside many of his family members, including his pregnant wife, while others remain trapped under the rubble. He is one of more than 400 people, including children, who lost their lives as Israel’s renewed airstrikes tear through the Strip, shattering the two-month ceasefire and bringing it to an end.
His death comes amid relentless airstrikes on civilians and direct attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, leaving hospitals overwhelmed and pushed beyond breaking point. After nearly three weeks under total blockade, doctors warn they are running out of the supplies they need to save lives. With food, water, medicine, and fuel cut off, medical teams are being forced to make unthinkable choices about who to treat and who to let die—all while families mark Ramadan, fasting through the day with no certainty of a meal, clean water, or medical care if they fall ill.
At the same time, Israel has issued new evacuation orders in eastern Gaza, including three primary health care centres and one field hospital, sparking fears of further escalation and forcing families—many already displaced countless times—to flee yet again, with nowhere left to turn.
Dr Mohammed Salha, the acting director of Al-Awda Hospital, described the devastation in a voice note shared with ActionAid following yesterday’s airstrikes: “Actually the Israeli [occupation] forces come back to bomb Gaza again and the Al-Awda hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip received eleven martyrs and more that 35 of injured and actually they are bombing all the Gaza Strip until now more than four hundred are…are killed by Israeli, Israeli occupation forces. They [have] closed the borders, the ports and they are not allowed to enter them [with] medical aids and also the humanitarian aid. We are suffering here in the hospital for [the] shortage of the medication, medical supplies. Actually also we are lose one of our team, the engineer Mohammad Marshood, he is working in the project coordination and management. We are sorry about that but here in Al-Awda hospital is still providing our services to our people and we don’t really know what will happen in the future, and the coming days. Hope it will finish soon.”
This heartbreaking loss is yet another example of the Israeli military’s blatant disregard for civilian lives and its disturbing pattern of attacks on hospitals and health workers. Hospitals should be places of healing, not horror. The international community must act now to stop these assaults, uphold the ceasefire, secure the full release of the hostages, and demand the immediate flow of lifesaving aid.
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Notes to editor
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