Jakarta, November 21 (RHC)-- Indonesia’s foreign minister has condemned in the strongest terms Israel’s attacks on Indonesian Hospital in the besieged Gaza Strip as a “clear violation of international humanitarian laws.”

“All countries, especially those that have close relations with Israel, must use all their influence and capabilities to urge Israel to stop its atrocities,” Retno Marsudi stated on Monday.

Israeli forces opened fire and launched artillery strikes on the hospital and the surrounding areas in the early hours of the day.

The Gaza Health Ministry’s General Manager Munner al-Bursh said the regime forces began artillery strikes “in the middle of the night and targeted the surgical department, wounding the doctors working there and killing 12 civilians who were taking refuge.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Bursh said Israeli forces also targeted people leaving the facility and shot them outside the hospital. “Their bodies are still lying on the ground, and nobody has been able to bury them.”

“We are using a small power generator that runs on vegetable oil, manufactured by some creative individuals who sacrificed some of their food supply to run the generator,” Bursh said.

Ashraf al-Qudra, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesman, said the situation is “catastrophic” in Indonesian Hospital. “The Indonesian Hospital staff are insisting they will stay to treat the wounded. There are about 700 people, including medical staff and injured people, inside the hospital.”

Reports said Israeli forces are going to repeat what happened at Shifa Hospital and will also occupy the Indonesian Hospital as tanks surrounded the facility.   Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has said the Israeli military operation in Gaza “is for the purpose of killing, in the spirit of revenge and with the aim of displacing our people.”

And UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the number of civilians killed in Israel’s war on Gaza has been “unparalleled and unprecedented” since he took office in 2017.

Children make up virtually 47 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million population. UNICEF has labeled the Gaza Strip “a graveyard for thousands of children.” It has also described the situation in Gaza as “a growing stain on our collective conscience”, calling the rate of children casualties “simply staggering.”

Save the Children says more children have been killed in Gaza than in all other conflicts around the world since 2019 combined.   Israel has killed 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza since October 7.