Indonesia urges ‘decisive action’ to stop war in Gaza, decries attacks on hospitals

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Indonesia on Tuesday called on the UN Security Council to take “decisive action” to end the war in Gaza “without delay,” decrying attacks on healthcare facilities in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

“The attacks targeting healthcare facilities and workers in northern Gaza, including the Indonesian Hospital, are clear violations of international law, international humanitarian law and fundamental human rights,” the Foreign Ministry of the Southeast Asian nation said in a statement.

The Israeli military has forcibly displaced hundreds of Palestinians from shelters in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, threatening them with weapons.

According to accounts from the displaced civilians, Israeli soldiers, who have been intensively attacking and besieging the Gaza Strip for at least 17 days, raided a shelter near the Indonesian Hospital where Palestinians had taken refuge. The troops detained a large number of Palestinian men staying there.

Construction of the hospital was funded by donations from the Indonesian public and groups such as the Indonesian Red Cross. It was inaugurated in 2016 by then-Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla.

Indonesia “strongly condemns the total blockade and Israeli attacks that have caused severe hunger and the deaths of countless Palestinian civilians in Northern Gaza,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Demanding Israel “immediately” stop its attacks across all of Gaza, particularly northern Gaza, Jakarta said that hospitals, healthcare workers, and all patients receiving care “must be protected under all circumstances, without exception.”

The Israeli army has continued a massive offensive in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege on the area.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal onslaught that has killed more than 42,700 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 100,000 others since last year, following a Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.