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 army pressured them to depart, he stated.
“We were evacuated via a route used by the International Red Cross with the permission of the Israeli army. There were three evacuations on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and we were evacuated last as we prioritised the wounded who were at the Indonesian Hospital,” Haq informed Al Jazeera.
Haq stated that Israeli forces intentionally destroyed the Indonesian-funded hospital’s solely working generator by setting it on fireplace and killed 12 individuals with indiscriminate shelling of the primary, second and third flooring of the constructing.
“Before we were evacuated, the attacks got worse and worse, hour by hour,” stated Haq, who was unable to speak for a number of weeks till his evacuation to Khan Younis.
“I saw it with my own eyes. There were three large tanks around 50 metres [54 yards] from the Indonesian Hospital building and they fired periodically at the hospital, which was devastating. Now the Indonesian Hospital has been completely taken over by the Israeli army,” he stated.
Israeli forces, who initially gave medical employees and sufferers simply hours to depart the hospital, have been accused of lowering 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 stated on Friday that Israeli fireplace within the ultimate hours earlier than the pause killed one girl and injured not less than three different individuals.
Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, who gained entry to the ability, reported that there was a “stench of death” exterior the hospital “as charred and decomposing bodies, children among them, pile up in corners”.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, the pinnacle of MER-C in Jakarta, stated the assaults on the hospital have been a violation of worldwide legislation 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 will not be owned by Indonesia or Indonesians because it was donated to the individuals of Gaza.
“The Indonesian Hospital was built with donations by Indonesian citizens and flies the Indonesian flag as a symbol of our friendship,” Sarbini informed Al Jazeera.
“The most we can do at MER-C is represent the Indonesian people and encourage the Indonesian government and the foreign ministry to take this case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).”
“Everyone needs to lobby the ICC, particularly the big five [the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States], and call for a permanent ceasefire,” he added.
Sarbini stated there are not any plans to completely evacuate the three Indonesian volunteers from Gaza as there’s nonetheless essential work for them to do by way of offering humanitarian help to the wounded and displaced in Khan Younis.
For now, Haq and his colleagues are taking inventory of their state of affairs as they work out how they will greatest assist the individuals of Gaza.
He stated they’re being fed properly after surviving for days on dwindling rations of meals and water on the besieged Indonesian Hospital.
“Thank God, we have enough food here now and there are people selling supplies around the European Hospital in Khan Younis,” Haq stated.
“We are eating French fries, fried aubergines and fried peppers. Sometimes we are able to get rice with a little meat, and sometimes we eat local food like bread and hummus.”
