JAKARTA: Indonesia denied on Tuesday (Nov 7) an Israeli claim that a hospital built in Gaza using Indonesian funding sits atop a network of Hamas tunnels and is located near a launchpad for rocket attacks.
The hospital, situated in the north of the Gaza Strip near the fortified border with Israel, was built using Indonesian charity funds.
“The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by the Indonesian people entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” Indonesia’s foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement came a day after Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said that the Indonesian Hospital had been built at a site that sat on top of a network of Hamas tunnels.
He also said that Hamas was using a nearby area as a base to launch rockets into Israel.
“I will show you the reason why they built the hospital there. Unsurprisingly, Hamas built the hospital on top of their terror infrastructures,” Hagari said in a video statement posted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on YouTube.
“Here, the IDF identified a launch pad, meaning they launch rockets from here,” he added, pointing to what he said was photographic evidence of his claim.
A spokesman for the foreign ministry refuted the claims about the hospital, which, like other medical centres in war-ravaged Gaza, is currently treating patients far beyond its capacity.
Source: CNA
