August 12, 2024
JAKARTA – Indonesia has joined a chorus of nations condemning a deadly Israeli air strike over the weekend on a school housing displaced Palestinians, with Jakarta calling for the international community to stop the “crimes against humanity” and ensure accountability from Israel, as the crisis in Gaza enters its tenth month.
The air strike on the Al-Taba’een school-turned-shelter reportedly killed nearly 100 people, sparking international condemnation despite Israel’s insistence that it was targeting militants.
Condemning the “massacre of Palestinians at the Al-Taba’een school by Israel”, the Foreign Ministry in Jakarta called on the United Nations Security Council to immediately conduct an investigation.
“Indonesia also calls on the international community to unite in stopping the crimes against humanity and genocide committed by Israel,” the ministry said on Saturday, adding that Israel “must be held accountable for all these crimes and all forms of impunity must be brought to an end”.
Since the conflict in Gaza escalated last year, Indonesia has been making diplomatic efforts to promote a permanent ceasefire and a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, both in bilateral engagements with its partners and through the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Indonesia has also been lobbying UN Security Council members to use their influence to bring the Israeli occupation to an immediate end, though Indonesia is not a member of the council, which has the power to produce legally binding resolutions.
Gaza’s Civil Defense emergency service said at least 93 people were killed, including 11 children and six women, when three Israeli missiles hit Al-Taba’een, in Hamas-ruled territory in Gaza City, during dawn prayers on Saturday, AFP reported.
The Israel military said Hamas had been using the school compound for military operations and cast doubt on the casualty tolls from Gaza, later adding that intelligence suggested “at least 19 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists were eliminated”.
International condemnation
The bombardment of the school drew criticism from the Middle East and beyond, alongside calls for a ceasefire, including from Qatar, one of the international mediators in the ceasefire-hostage talks between Israel and Hamas.
Qatar called for an “urgent international investigation” into the Saturday attack.
The Israeli strike drew an expression of deep concern from the United States, a key ally of Tel Aviv that has been working with partners to prevent the 10-month-old Gaza conflict from escalating into a regional war, Reuters reported.
Read also: Israel agrees to resume Gaza truce talks next week
Egypt, Qatar and the US have scheduled a new round of ceasefire negotiations for Aug. 15, as fears grow of a broader conflict involving Iran and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon.
Hamas denounced the air strike as a “dangerous escalation”, while Hezbollah called it a “horrific massacre”, AFP reported.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the school strike left him “horrified”.
France said “Israel must respect international humanitarian law”.
“For several weeks, school buildings have been repeatedly targeted, with an intolerable number of civilian victims,” the French foreign ministry said.
With nearly all of the Gaza Strip’s 2.4 million people displaced at least once during the war, many have sought refuge in school buildings, which have been hit at least 14 times since July 6, according to an AFP tally.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza after Hamas fighters stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and capturing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies, Reuters reported. Since then, nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to the health ministry.
More medical aid
A team of medical personnel from the Indonesian Military (TNI) left for Egypt on Friday to take part in a humanitarian mission to treat injured Palestinians from the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The team consists of 25 medical workers who will be deployed to a floating hospital owned by the United Arab Emirates in El Arish, Egypt.
Another team of 15 personnel is to be deployed to a field hospital in Rafah, Gaza, if security conditions allow, according to the Defense Ministry.
“What is happening in Gaza deeply affects our sense of humanity,” Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said when briefing the team earlier last week, according to a press statement.
“Indonesia must show solidarity, humanity and support the right of nations to live freely and determine their own future without oppression.”
Earlier this year, Indonesia sent a contingent of medical workers and 242 tonnes of humanitarian aid to the area aboard hospital ship KRI Dr. Radjiman Wedyodiningrat, with the aim of operating the ship as a floating hospital.
In the Gaza Strip, the nonprofit-run Indonesian Hospital had long provided medical aid for people there. The hospital was destroyed in an Israeli assault in November 2023. (ipa/nvn)