Medan, Indonesia – Right now of the 12 months, it ought to be strawberry season within the Gaza Strip.
As an alternative, the fields historically planted with strawberries in September and harvested from November are actually battlefields.
One of the vital fertile areas for Palestine’s famend strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its good local weather, wealthy soil and high-quality water provides.
Positioned in north Gaza, Beit Lahia can be the house of the Indonesia Hospital the place medical volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq relies with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).
“The Israeli forces have been bombing fields across the Gaza Strip and a lot of crops have died”, Haq advised Al Jazeera.
“This year, there won’t be the usual produce like strawberries, even though it is the winter season,” he stated.
Amid the horror of Israel’s battle on Gaza, the destruction of Palestine’s strawberry harvest could appear insignificant.
However for Haq – considered one of three Indonesian MER-C volunteers primarily based on the Indonesia Hospital – the reminiscence of Gaza’s strawberries helps him cope. Every day is now a matter of survival within the territory, the place Israel is now concentrating its assaults on hospitals.
“At the beginning of the war, we were still able to get some goods from the area around the hospital, like vegetables and instant noodles, but now it is impossible to get fresh produce like onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he stated, chatting with Al Jazeera by way of WhatsApp voice messages.
“At the Indonesia Hospital now, staff only get a meal once a day at lunchtime, which is provided by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and dinner, staff eat biscuits or dates,” he stated.
![The Indonesia Hospital in Gaza during peacetime [Photo courtesy of MER-C]](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/6.-RS-Indonesia-dg-solar-panel-1699758104.jpeg?w=770&resize=770%2C513)
Circumstances at each the Indonesian and Al-Shifa hospitals, in addition to different hospitals in Gaza, have severely deteriorated since Al Jazeera final spoke to Haq on Friday.
Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, warned on Saturday that tons of of injured folks in addition to new child infants wanted to be urgently transported to an operational medical facility as his hospital was crumbling beneath the pressure of an absence of gasoline and drugs – in addition to Israeli bombardments.
“It’s a tragedy. The dead bodies – we can’t put them in freezers as they’re not functioning so we decided to dig a pit in the vicinity of the hospital. It’s a very inhumane scene. The situation is totally out of control. Hundreds of bodies are decomposing,” Abu Salmiya advised Al Jazeera.
Atef al-Kahlot, the director of the Indonesia Hospital, stated his facility is working solely at between 30-40 p.c of capability and he made an attraction for the world to assist.
“We call on the honourable people of the world, if any of them are left, to put pressure on the occupation forces to supply the Indonesian Hospital and the rest of the hospitals in the Gaza Strip,” he stated.
Earlier than the battle
Earlier than the battle, meals provides for the Indonesia Hospital have been often sourced from close by areas, Haq stated. At first of Israel’s complete blockade and assaults on Gaza, MER-C volunteers would exit to hunt for provides in ambulances, supplied by the hospital, which have been thought-about safer than civilian automobiles.
Now the preventing has come so near the hospital that it’s too harmful to enterprise exterior.
Haq advised Al Jazeera that he has been feeling notably shaken currently, following an tour about two weeks in the past to supply medical provides for the hospital from civilian houses within the surrounding Al-Jalaa district, throughout which he thought he would possibly die.
He and different volunteers from Indonesia have been solely about 20 minutes from the hospital when bombs began to fall some 200 metres (218 yards) away.
“I felt the most scared and resigned to my fate then, because we were in buildings owned by locals and, as we know, the Israeli military is destroying civilian homes,” he stated.
“There was no guarantee of our safety. It made me feel extraordinary fear but, by the grace of God, we were protected.”
On account of the journey, Haq was capable of finding some medical provides for the hospital and hand out meals packets to medical employees.
However since that near-miss with Israeli shells and missiles, he and the opposite volunteers have stayed inside the hospital grounds the place they sleep within the docs’ quarters.
“The trauma we experienced was so great but, if we stay on the hospital grounds, I feel safe because the Israeli military has not directly attacked the hospital yet,” he stated.
“The area around the hospital is being bombarded constantly and when that happens, I feel a very human fear,” he added.
Previously week, areas across the Indonesian and different hospitals within the Gaza Strip have been the targets of intensifying Israeli bombardments.
Israeli tanks have closed in, encircling the medical services the place tens of 1000’s of displaced Palestinians have sought shelter as Israel’s bombardment flattens whole neighbourhoods in Gaza. Greater than 11,000 folks have now been killed within the territory.
Haq recounts the Israeli bombing being so shut that it made the hospital constructing shake and a part of the roof had already collapsed.
“Usually, when there are bombings, the hospital building sways but on November 9, it felt as if the hospital was being lifted up off its foundations,” he stated.
“It just made us terrified.”
Treating wounds and documenting tragedy
Haq advised Al Jazeera that when the bombing begins, he and the opposite employees take refuge within the basement of the hospital. Their each day work schedule fluctuates in keeping with the numerous wants of employees and sufferers.
“Some days I work from 11am until 4pm the next day and just sleep a few hours where I can. The other day, I slept from 7am to 8am and then started again,” he stated.
In 2011, MER-C organised donations to construct the Indonesia Hospital, which was formally inaugurated in 2016 by Indonesia’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
MER-C employees are technically medical humanitarian volunteers. Now, considered one of their main roles is to doc the sick and injured who come to the hospital and monitor the assaults across the facility.
Haq and his colleagues additionally help with medical remedy, notably because the scenario continues to deteriorate and docs on the hospital are overrun with sufferers streaming in from surrounding areas.
“On Wednesday last week, when patients rushed to the hospital, we helped treat minor wounds because there were not enough doctors to handle all the patients,” he stated.
Whereas Indonesia has been working to evacuate a few of its nationals in Gaza, Haq advised Al Jazeera that he wouldn’t be considered one of them.
“God willing, me and the two other MER-C volunteers have decided to stay in the Gaza Strip,” he stated.
“We really appreciate the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs helping to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Gaza, but that is our decision,” he stated about selecting to stay in Gaza.
“We hope we can keep helping citizens of Gaza to find fuel, food and medical supplies, and treat them at the Indonesia Hospital. That is our motivation to keep going.”
Al Jazeera has been unable to contact Haq since midnight on Friday.