Palestinian women mourn as they hold the bodies of children killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Indonesian hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip November 18, 2023.

 　　　Palestinian women grieve as they hold the body of a child killed in an Israeli attack on the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestine, on November 18, 2023, amid the ongoing conflict between Israeli forces and Hamas.

　On November 20, 1923, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN health specialty, reported an attack on an Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza that killed at least 12 people, including patients and their companions admitted to the hospital, and injured dozens of others. In the latest Israeli forces continue to surround the Indonesian hospital. Shots were reportedly fired at people leaving the hospital. The Indonesian Hospital, like other hospitals in northern Gaza and Gaza City, also faced severe shortages of water, essential medicines, and supplies from power outages when the main and sub generators stopped functioning due to fuel shortages several weeks ago. The hospital put seriously injured patients and other medical emergencies at imminent risk.

　During the past six weeks, there have been multiple and ongoing attacks by Israeli forces on medical facilities. The Indonesian hospital was forced to evacuate en masse, resulting in numerous casualties among patients, their companions, and those who took refuge in the hospital. Indonesian hospitals have been damaged in at least five attacks since October 7.

　WHO recorded 335 medical attacks in the occupied Palestinian territories since October 7, when Israeli forces invaded, including 164 in the Gaza Strip and 171 in the West Bank The October 7 violence included 33 attacks on medical care in Israel.

　As a result of the attacks and shortages of fuel, medicine, and safe water, the number of beds in Gaza fell to 1,400 from 3,500 before October 7. A critical vacuum was created for patients with trauma and other ailments requiring hospitalization. Healthcare was not the target; hospitals, safe havens, were transformed into death, devastation, and despair, and WHO reminded parties to the conflict that they have an obligation under international humanitarian law to respect and actively protect the sanctity of healthcare facilities.

Warning: Palestinian women mourn as they hold the bodies of children killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Indonesian hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip November 18, 2023. REUTERS/Fadi Alwhidi