JAKARTA – A hospital set up by Indonesians in the Gaza Strip has become one of the latest to run out of power, as aid workers scramble for fuel to continue saving lives amid the worsening humanitarian crisis there.
The Indonesia Hospital, which has been using generators for electricity amid an Israeli blockade on the enclave, was forced to treat the injured in darkness and shut down some of its services on Monday.
Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) Indonesia, a group that is on the ground at the hospital, said on Wednesday that a power cut had occurred.
“The power outage is due to a lack of fuel, which is difficult to get now,” said the group in an Instagram post.
The post contained video clips of what appears to be the hospital at night, with medical staff treating injured people using flashlights.
The Gaza Strip has largely been cut off from fuel, electricity and clean water, after Israel declared a complete siege on the territory more than two weeks ago.
Many in the international community have sounded the alarm against the move, given how such actions will affect the lives of civilians caught up in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The Gaza Strip has become the main target of the Israeli military’s retaliatory air strikes after Hamas breached the border wall on Oct 7, killing more than 1,400 people and taking some 200 people hostage.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has said that since Oct 7, over 7,000 people have been killed from Israeli attacks, including more than 2,900 children.
The Indonesia Hospital, whose construction was funded by donations from Indonesians as well as organisations such as the Indonesian Red Cross Society and Islamic group Muhammadiyah, was inaugurated in 2016 by then Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and has 100 beds and four operating theatres.
Located in north Gaza, the hospital is one of many in the enclave that have been affected by the ongoing war. More than 20 other hospitals in north and central Gaza have been operating in similar conditions.
Hospitals in the area have been struggling to deal with the thousands of people who come daily to seek help with wounds they have received amid constant Israeli aerial bombardment.
MER-C said that the Indonesia Hospital, outfitted with some solar panels, is able to turn on its power for about five hours in the day. At night, only part of the hospital can be lit up, and the rest of the building has to work in darkness.
In a later update on Wednesday, MER-C volunteer Fikri Rohul Haq said the group’s work goes on and that it had delivered 1,000 meals to staff and patients in the hospital, as well as medicine, snacks and clothes for paramedics.
“We are still trying to find fuel for the use of electricity here in the Indonesia Hospital,” he added.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday that six hospitals in Gaza have been forced to close due to a lack of fuel.
“Unless vital fuel and additional health supplies are urgently delivered into Gaza, thousands of vulnerable patients risk death or medical complications as critical services shut down due to lack of power,” the WHO added.
“For people in the Gaza Strip, the situation is desperate. It will become catastrophic without the safe and continuous passage of fuel and health supplies, and additional humanitarian assistance.”
