Medan, Indonesia — At this time of the year, it needs to be strawberry season in the Gaza Strip.
Rather, the fields typically planted with strawberries in September and collected from November are now battlegrounds.
Among the most fertile areas for Palestine’s distinguished strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its great environment, abundant soil and premium water materials.
Found in north Gaza, Beit Lahia is likewise the home of the Indonesia Hospital where medical volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq is based with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).
“The Israeli forces have actually been battle fields throughout the Gaza Strip and a great deal of crops have actually passed away”, Haq informed Al Jazeera.
“This year, there will not be the normal fruit and vegetables like strawberries, despite the fact that it is the winter,” he stated.
Amidst the scary of Israel’s war on Gaza, the damage of Palestine’s strawberry harvest might appear unimportant.
For Haq– one of 3 Indonesian MER-C volunteers based at the Indonesia Hospital– the memory of Gaza’s strawberries assists him cope. Every day is now a matter of survival in the area, where Israel is now focusing its attacks on health centers.
“At the start of the war, we were still able to get some items from the location around the health center, like veggies and instantaneous noodles, now it is difficult to get fresh fruit and vegetables like onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he stated, speaking with Al Jazeera through WhatsApp voice messages.
“At the Indonesia Hospital now, personnel just get a meal as soon as a day at lunch break, which is supplied by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and supper, personnel consume biscuits or dates,” he stated.
Conditions at both the Indonesian and Al-Shifa healthcare facilities, in addition to other health centers in Gaza, have seriously shabby given that Al Jazeera last talked to Haq on Friday.
Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, the director of Al-Shifa Hospital, alerted on Saturday that numerous hurt individuals in addition to newborns required to be urgently transferred to a functional medical center as his medical facility was collapsing under the stress of an absence of fuel and medication– in addition to Israeli barrages.
“It’s a catastrophe. The dead bodies– we can’t put them in freezers as they’re not working so we chose to dig a pit in the area of the medical facility. It’s an extremely inhumane scene. The scenario is absolutely out of control. Numerous bodies are breaking down,” Abu Salmiya informed Al Jazeera.
Atef al-Kahlot, the director of the Indonesia Hospital, stated his center is running just at in between 30-40 percent of capability and he made an appeal for the world to assist.
“We get in touch with the honourable individuals of the world, if any of them are left, to put pressure on the profession forces to provide the Indonesian Hospital and the rest of the medical facilities in the Gaza Strip,” he stated.
Before the war
Before the war, food products for the Indonesia Hospital were normally sourced from close-by locations, Haq stated. At the start of Israel’s overall blockade and attacks on Gaza, MER-C volunteers would head out to hunt for materials in ambulances, supplied by the health center, which were thought about much safer than civilian cars.
Now the combating has actually come so near the medical facility that it is too unsafe to endeavor exterior.
Haq informed Al Jazeera that he has actually been feeling especially shaken recently, following an expedition about 2 weeks ago to source medical materials for the healthcare facility from civilian homes in the surrounding Al-Jalaa district, throughout which he believed he may pass away.
He and other volunteers from Indonesia were just about 20 minutes from the healthcare facility when bombs began to fall some 200 metres (218 lawns) away.
“I felt the most afraid and resigned to my fate then, due to the fact that we remained in structures owned by residents and, as we understand, the Israeli armed force is damaging civilian homes,” he stated.
“There was no assurance of our security. It made me feel remarkable worry however, by the grace of God, we were safeguarded.”
As an outcome of the journey, Haq had the ability to discover some medical materials for the health center and distribute food packages to medical personnel.
Because that near-miss with Israeli shells and rockets, he and the other volunteers have actually remained within the health center premises where they sleep in the medical professionals’ quarters.
“The injury we experienced was so excellent however, if we remain on the health center premises, I feel safe due to the fact that the Israeli armed force has actually not straight assaulted the healthcare facility yet,” he stated.
“The location around the medical facility is being bombarded continuously and when that occurs, I feel an extremely human worry,” he included.
In the previous week, locations around the Indonesian and other medical facilities in the Gaza Strip have actually been the targets of heightening Israeli barrages.
Israeli tanks have actually closed in, surrounding the medical centers where 10s of countless displaced Palestinians have actually looked for shelter as Israel’s barrage flattens whole areas in Gaza. More than 11,000 individuals have actually now been eliminated in the area.
Haq states the Israeli battle being so close that it made the health center structure shake and part of the roofing system had actually currently collapsed.
“Usually, when there are battles, the medical facility structure sways however on November 9, it felt as if the medical facility was being raised off its structures,” he stated.
“It simply made us horrified.”
Dealing with injuries and recording disaster
Haq informed Al Jazeera that when the battle begins, he and the other personnel take sanctuary in the basement of the medical facility. Their everyday work schedule varies according to the substantial requirements of personnel and clients.
“Some days I work from 11am till 4pm the next day and simply sleep a couple of hours where I can. A few days ago, I slept from 7am to 8am and after that began once again,” he stated.
In 2011, MER-C arranged contributions to develop the Indonesia Hospital, which was formally inaugurated in 2016 by Indonesia’s then-Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
MER-C personnel are technically medical humanitarian volunteers. Now, among their main functions is to record the ill and hurt who concern the health center and keep an eye on the attacks around the center.
Haq and his coworkers likewise help with medical treatment, especially as the scenario continues to weaken and medical professionals at the medical facility are overrun with clients streaming in from surrounding locations.
“On Wednesday recently, when clients hurried to the medical facility, we assisted deal with small injuries since there were inadequate medical professionals to manage all the clients,” he stated.
While Indonesia has actually been working to leave a few of its nationals in Gaza, Haq informed Al Jazeera that he would not be among them.
“God ready, me and the 2 other MER-C volunteers have actually chosen to remain in the Gaza Strip,” he stated.
“We truly value the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs assisting to leave Indonesian residents from Gaza, however that is our choice,” he stated about selecting to stay in Gaza.
“We hope we can keep assisting people of Gaza to discover fuel, food and medical products, and treat them at the Indonesia Hospital. That is our inspiration to keep going.”
Al Jazeera has actually been not able to get in touch with Haq considering that midnight on Friday.