Khalil Suleiman

Khalil Suleiman (1943/1944 – 4 March 2002) was a Palestinian doctor and the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) Emergency Medical Service in Jenin, Palestine. He was killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 2002 while traveling in an ambulance to rescue a wounded girl during the Second Intifada. The IDF stated that they fired on the ambulance because it was driving towards them at high speed, but eyewitnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch and Reuters disputed this claim. A piece of the ambulance was included in the Jenin Horse, a monument constructed from scrap metal in 2003 and later dismantled by the IDF in 2023.

Background Suleiman was a doctor. Around 1982, he began volunteering with the PRCS and later served as the head of the PRCS Emergency Medical Service in Jenin for 10 years. Beginning in 1996, he conducted first aid trainings throughout 40 villages in the West Bank as part of a health education project funded by Norwegian People's Aid.

Death IDF attack on ambulance On March 4, 2002, Suleiman was traveling in a clearly marked ambulance while attempting to rescue a wounded girl from Jenin. According to the PRCS director and a physician at the Jenin Hospital, the ambulance's trip had been pre-approved by the IDF. The IDF fired at the ambulance, hitting the oxygen tanks and causing a fire. In addition, five PRCS workers from the two ambulances were injured,

Reactions The IDF accused Palestinians of using ambulances for military purposes and stated that the ambulance had "exploded" when hit: "which raises questions about what was in it and what the intent of the drivers was." Later, they stated that the soldiers had fired on the ambulance in self-defense after it "charged toward them at a high speed from an area in which there were exchanges of fire". Human Rights Watch released a statement entitled: "Israel: Cease Attacking Medical Personnel" after the IDF fired on three ambulances in one week, injuring nine and killing three ambulance workers, including Suleiman. They stated that "deliberate attacks on medical personnel, vehicles and infrastructure constitute a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions." and the United Nations Secretary-General. The hospital director said that the purpose of the renaming was: "to remember a person, a national hero, who sacrificed to save others." His brother's son was named Khalil in his memory. In 2015, a ceremony was held to commemorate the 13th anniversary of Suleiman's death.

The year after Suleiman was killed, German artist and several Palestinian young people built a 16 foot sculpture in the shape of a horse out of the scrap metal of houses and vehicles destroyed by the IDF in Jenin. The resulting artwork, called the Jenin Horse, included a piece of the ambulance in which Suleiman was killed by the IDF. Considered a landmark of Jenin, it stood at the entrance of the Jenin Refugee Camp for twenty years until it was dismantled in October 2023 by the IDF.