Medan, Indonesia – As Israeli tanks and troops laid siege to the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza final week, volunteer medical employee Fikri Rofiul Haq confronted the selection of evacuating to security or staying together with his sufferers.
Haq and fellow his Indonesian colleagues, Reza Aldilla Kurniawan and Farid Zazabil Al Ayubi, volunteers with the Jakarta-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), opted to remain put till the Israeli navy compelled them to depart, he mentioned.
“We had been evacuated by way of a route utilized by the Worldwide Crimson Cross with the permission of the Israeli military. There have been three evacuations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and we had been evacuated final as we prioritised the wounded who had been on the Indonesian Hospital,” Haq advised Al Jazeera.
Haq mentioned that Israeli forces intentionally destroyed the Indonesian-funded hospital’s solely working generator by setting it on fireplace and killed 12 folks with indiscriminate shelling of the primary, second and third flooring of the constructing.
“Earlier than we had been evacuated, the assaults obtained worse and worse, hour by hour,” mentioned Haq, who was unable to speak for a number of weeks till his evacuation to Khan Younis.
“I noticed it with my very own eyes. There have been three giant tanks round 50 metres [54 yards] from the Indonesian Hospital constructing they usually fired periodically on the hospital, which was devastating. Now the Indonesian Hospital has been utterly taken over by the Israeli military,” he mentioned.
Israeli forces, who initially gave medical workers and sufferers simply hours to depart the hospital, have been accused of decreasing one in all Gaza’s largest medical services to ruins within the days main as much as the four-day truce with Hamas, which started on Friday.
The Ministry of Well being in Gaza mentioned on Friday that Israeli fireplace within the remaining hours earlier than the pause killed one lady and injured at the least three different folks.
Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, who gained entry to the ability, reported that there was a “stench of loss of life” exterior the hospital “as charred and decomposing our bodies, youngsters amongst them, pile up in corners”.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, the pinnacle of MER-C in Jakarta, mentioned the assaults on the hospital had been a violation of worldwide regulation and that Indonesia ought to do extra to carry Israel to account given the nation’s hyperlinks to the hospital, which was inaugurated in 2016 by Indonesia’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla after being funded with donations from Indonesian residents and humanitarian organisations.
Nevertheless, Jakarta’s leverage could also be restricted. Indonesia doesn’t have diplomatic ties with Israel and the hospital isn’t owned by Indonesia or Indonesians because it was donated to the folks of Gaza.
“The Indonesian Hospital was constructed with donations by Indonesian residents and flies the Indonesian flag as a logo of our friendship,” Sarbini advised Al Jazeera.
“Essentially the most we will do at MER-C is signify the Indonesian folks and encourage the Indonesian authorities and the overseas ministry to take this case to the Worldwide Prison Court docket (ICC).”
“Everybody must foyer the ICC, notably the large 5 [the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States], and name for a everlasting ceasefire,” he added.
Sarbini mentioned there aren’t any plans to completely evacuate the three Indonesian volunteers from Gaza as there’s nonetheless necessary work for them to do when it comes to offering humanitarian help to the wounded and displaced in Khan Younis.
For now, Haq and his colleagues are taking inventory of their scenario as they work out how they’ll greatest assist the folks of Gaza.
He mentioned they’re being fed properly after surviving for days on dwindling rations of meals and water on the besieged Indonesian Hospital.
“Thank God, we now have sufficient meals right here now and there are folks promoting provides across the European Hospital in Khan Younis,” Haq mentioned.
“We’re consuming French fries, fried aubergines and fried peppers. Typically we’re capable of get rice with a bit of meat, and typically we eat native meals like bread and hummus.”