Indonesian staff at Gaza hospital ‘resigned to fate’ as Israelis close in

Medan, Indonesia – At this time of the one year, it ought to be strawberry season in the Gaza Strip.

Instead, the fields historically planted with strawberries in September and harvested from November are with out a doubt battlefields.

Thought to be one of primarily the most fertile regions for Palestine’s neatly-known strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its accurate climate, rich soil and excessive-quality water gives.

Located in north Gaza, Beit Lahia is additionally the house of the Indonesia Hospital the put scientific volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq is based with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Scientific Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).

“The Israeli forces were bombing fields all over the Gaza Strip and reasonably just a few crops have died”, Haq told Al Jazeera.

“This one year, there gained’t be the same old attach love strawberries, even although it is the winter season,” he acknowledged.

Amid the dread of Israel’s war on Gaza, the destruction of Palestine’s strawberry harvest  would possibly perchance perhaps appear insignificant.

But for Haq – one in every of three Indonesian MER-C volunteers based at the Indonesia Hospital – the reminiscence of Gaza’s strawberries helps him cope. Day to day is now a matter of survival in the territory, the put Israel is now concentrating its attacks on hospitals.

“At the beginning of the war, we were calm ready to derive some items from the region all over the hospital, love greens and instant noodles, nonetheless now it is rarely doable to derive recent attach love onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he acknowledged, speaking to Al Jazeera through WhatsApp inform messages.

“At the Indonesia Hospital now, staff easiest derive a meal once a day at lunchtime, which is equipped by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and dinner, staff eat biscuits or dates,” he acknowledged.

The Indonesia Hospital in Gaza during peacetime [File photo courtesy of MER-C]

Prerequisites at each the Indonesian and Al-Shifa hospitals, as effectively as diversified hospitals in Gaza, have seriously deteriorated since Al Jazeera last spoke to Haq on Friday.

Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, warned on Saturday that tons of of injured of us as effectively as recent child infants wanted to be urgently transported to an operational scientific facility as his hospital was crumbling beneath the strain of a lack of gas and medicine – as effectively as Israeli bombardments.

“It’s a tragedy. The unimaginative bodies – we are able to’t attach them in freezers as they’re no longer functioning so we decided to dig a pit in the vicinity of the hospital. It’s a extraordinarily inhumane scene. The situation is totally out of regulate. Tons of of bodies are decomposing,” Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.

Atef al-Kahlot, the director of the Indonesia Hospital, acknowledged his facility is operating easiest at between 30-40 p.c of ability and he made an enchantment for the realm to attend.

“We name on the honourable of us of the realm, if any of them are left, to attach strain on the occupation forces to provide the Indonesian Hospital and the remainder of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he acknowledged.

Prior to the war

Prior to the war, food gives for the Indonesia Hospital were on the total sourced from close by areas, Haq acknowledged. At the beginning of Israel’s total blockade and attacks on Gaza, MER-C volunteers would exit to hunt for gives in ambulances, supplied by the hospital, which were conception to be safer than civilian automobiles.

Now the fighting has advance so close to the hospital that it is too unhealthy to mission outside.

Haq told Al Jazeera that he has been feeling in particular shaken lately, following an tour about two weeks in the past to offer scientific gives for the hospital from civilian homes in the surrounding Al-Jalaa district, during which he conception he would possibly perchance perhaps die.

He and diversified volunteers from Indonesia were easiest about 20 minutes from the hospital when bombs started to topple some 200 metres (218 yards) away.

“I felt primarily the most alarmed and resigned to my fate then, as a consequence of we were in buildings owned by locals and, as we all know, the Israeli protection power is destroying civilian homes,” he acknowledged.

“There was no assure of our safety. It made me with out a doubt feel extraordinary effort nonetheless, by the grace of God, we were protected.”

As a results of the day out, Haq was ready to find some scientific gives for the hospital and hand out food packets to scientific staff.

But since that close to-chase away out with Israeli shells and missiles, he and the diversified volunteers have stayed within the hospital grounds the put they sleep in the doctors’ quarters.

“The trauma we experienced was so great nonetheless, if we protect on the hospital grounds, I with out a doubt feel safe for the reason that Israeli protection power has no longer immediately attacked the hospital but,” he acknowledged.

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