The Israeli army's assault on the Indonesian hospital in Gaza on Monday, November 20, raised the level of indignation in the world's largest Muslim country (275 million inhabitants, 87% of whom are Muslims), which does not recognize Israel and has long campaigned for a two-state solution.
Opened in 2016 by an Indonesian NGO, Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), the hospital was the only one left in the north of the Palestinian enclave, along with Al-Shifa Hospital, which was partly destroyed by the Israeli army last week. Monday's attack targeted the hospital's second and third floors, forcing survivors to cram into the first floor and resulting in the death of 12 people. However, according to Hamas Health Ministry spokesperson Ashraf Al-Qudra, 200 wounded people were evacuated to southern Gaza on Monday.
In a report broadcast on Tuesday by the Qatari channel Al-Jazeera from inside the hospital, the hospital director, Palestinian Munir Al-Borsh, drew attention to the impossibility of treating patients and the presence of almost 65 dead bodies on the site. According to him, 1,500 people, including 650 patients, were living in the hospital before Monday's evacuations.
Traveling to Beijing as part of a tour with four of her Arab counterparts to convince the five permanent members of the UN Security Council to push for a ceasefire, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi on Monday condemned in the strongest possible terms the assault on the Indonesian hospital, denouncing it as "a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law." Three Indonesian staff members who have been missing for 10 days were able to confirm their status Tuesday.
The fate of the Indonesian hospital has mobilized public opinion since Israeli fire first hit it on October 25. On November 5, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari declared that the hospital had been "built to conceal Hamas's underground terror infrastructure," and the following day Marsudi, under pressure from public opinion, came to the defense of this private, non-profit organization.
On the same day, the head of Indonesian diplomacy took part in a large-scale pro-Palestinian demonstration in Jakarta's Independence Square, attended by over 100,000 people at the call of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the country's highest Islamic clerical authority. "My Indonesia and I will never give up on helping you. My Indonesia and I will always be with you until the colonizers leave your home. Palestine, you are my brother," declared Marsudi. On November 8, the MUI published a "fatwa" on the religious duty of Muslims to support the Palestinian struggle, addressed to both the government and the population; any direct or indirect support for "Israeli aggression against Palestine," or "the use of products linked to Israel and to those who support the occupation and Zionism" would therefore become "haram" (unlawful).
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