Jakarta: The Israeli army has killed the families of two doctors working at the Indonesia Hospital in Gaza, the NGO that funds the facility said on Thursday, amid a surge in strikes targeting the relatives of Palestinian doctors.
The families of doctors Mohammad Al-Ran, who is the head of the surgery department, and Muayyad Al-Ran, were among those killed in an Israeli air raid on Thursday morning.
Since Tel Aviv started to bombard the besieged enclave following an Oct. 7 attack by the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, more than 6,500 people have been killed in the raids and over 17,000 injured, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
The air strikes have also targeted dozens of health centers and doctors in the densely populated territory.
The Indonesia Hospital in north Gaza, which is funded by the Indonesian NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee, or MER-C, was one of the first health facilities hit by Israeli missiles at the beginning of the escalation.
“The news is true. We are still looking into the details now,” Fikri Rofiul Haq, a MER-C volunteer at the hospital, told Arab News in a text message.
Clips shared widely on social media showed the moment the doctors received the news over the phone, as they were surrounded by colleagues trying to comfort them.
“The targeting of surgeons, who are very much needed by war-injured patients, is a cruel and inhuman decision. Doctors and other health workers are protected by the Geneva Convention,” Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of MER-C’s executive committee in Jakarta, told Arab News.
“In Gaza, health workers are often targeted by Israeli attacks. Not only doctors, even the Indonesian Hospital has also received threats.”
The World Health Organization has so far documented 171 Israeli attacks on health facilities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including 75 in the Gaza Strip. The strikes have killed at least 16 health workers on duty.
These attacks occur as Gaza hospitals are overwhelmed by thousands of patients with traumatic wounds from incessant bombardment, and are also filled with tens of thousands of people seeking shelter.
Health facilities in Gaza are struggling to function as crucial supplies, such as fuel and medicines, have run out. According to the WHO, six hospitals were already forced to shut down due to a lack of fuel.
“Without fuel, medicines and health supplies, Gaza’s hospitals are on the precipice of an unimaginable humanitarian catastrophe,” the WHO said in a statement on Thursday.
“WHO calls for immediate and uninterrupted access into and across Gaza, so that its ailing health system can be urgently revived.”
