Israel-Gaza war: flashlights and patients in corridors – how an Indonesian hospital is struggling to function amid bombings
- The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, built in 2011 with US$8 million in donations from Indonesians, is running low on supplies as bodies pile up amid a manpower shortage
- Despite the bombings, volunteers say services remain uninterrupted but plead for world powers to press Israel into a ceasefire
In war-torn Gaza Strip, bodies wrapped in white cloth have since Monday been lined up at the side of the Indonesian Hospital, where most victims of two Israeli assaults on the Jabalia refugee camp – the largest in the territory – are being treated.
The hospital was on Thursday using a backup generator with only one day’s supply of fuel, as Indonesia intensifies diplomatic efforts to get more humanitarian aid from Egypt into the area.
The 110-bed facility was inaugurated in 2016 by former Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla, who dubbed it “a symbol of cooperation” between Indonesians and Palestinians.
Fikri Rofiul Haq, a volunteer in Gaza with Indonesia-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (Mer-C), which built the hospital in 2011 using nearly US$8 million in funds donated entirely by Indonesians, said on Wednesday that the hospital only had 48 hours before it ran out of fuel for generators.
Mer-C, founded in 1999, has since sent more than 300 humanitarian missions across Indonesia and overseas, including to Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Sudan.
The bombings killed 195 and wounded at least 777, with 120 still missing, Gaza’s Government Media Office said on Wednesday. The Indonesian Hospital is located just outside the camp.
The hospital has been juggling with limited resources since Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel on October 7. Doctors now have to treat victims in the corridors, at times using flashlights due to constant power outage, Mer-C said. Supplies of medicines, paramedic clothes and other health equipment are also running low.