AT LEAST 20 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza yesterday morning, with the houses of a nurse and a civil defence worker among those targeted.
In the north, attacks continued in the vicinity of the Indonesian Hospital.
The Director-General of the Health Ministry, Munir al-Bursh, said: ‘No treatment is available for some 550 people at the Indonesian Hospital. The siege has resulted in the deaths of some of those brought to the facility injured and those who are injured but not killed in Israeli attacks end up bleeding out and dying, as they are unable to reach the facility.’
There are over 400 injured people still inside the Indonesian Hospital in addition to 200 medical staff and over 2,000 taking refuge, with the Israeli army outside targeting anybody who moves around the hospital or inside it.
The Israeli army is also still besieging Al-Shifa Hospital where over 700 people are still held captive, which has become a graveyard for everyone inside it.
The Indonesian Hospital, which is surrounded by Israeli tanks, opened in 2015. It is located near Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza which has come under repeated attack.
The hospital is funded by an Indonesian volunteer-led organisation called the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee. It was built to accommodate 140 patients but has been operating far above capacity.
The head of the charity funding the hospital has written an open letter to United States President Joe Biden.
Sarbini Abdul Murad, of the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), writes that it is ‘very unfortunate’ that the US is ‘siding with Israel.
‘You have destroyed the international rules of the game, insulted the authority of the United Nations, torn apart the sense of justice, and hurt human values, and tarnished the face of human civilisation,’ the letter said, calling for a ceasefire to be implemented immediately.
‘We, the Indonesian people, and also the people all around the world, will continue to support the struggle for the liberation of Palestinian land from Israeli Zionist colonialism,’ it said.
MER-C has been unable to contact three of its Indonesian volunteers at the hospital in Gaza for the past 11 days.
Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported yesterday that supplies of food and water are practically non-existent in Gaza.
Senior WFP spokesman Abeer Etefa said: ‘The situation is catastrophic, with only a fraction of what is needed entering through the Rafah crossing. Hunger is spreading fast, local markets have shut down and farmers and fishermen have ceased activities.
‘Civilians are facing the immediate risk of falling into starvation.’
