"We send a surgical team comprising five to six people to the Gaza Strip. We also bring medicines and surgical instruments, as Gaza has few medicines, less instruments, and the doctors are exhausted there. We can help, although it is not much," Dr Sarbini Abdul Murad, chairman of the MER-C Indonesia Presidium, stated here on Tuesday.
Murad noted that the surgical team being deployed comprises specialists in the fields of orthopedic repair, anesthetic surgery, general surgery, plastic surgery, and nursing surgery.
The team's members come from MER-C offices in regions, including from Surabaya.
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"As for the time of departure, we will strive to do it as soon as possible. This is because the current condition is difficult to predict, as we have to take care of registration here and there," Murad, the first Indonesian doctor to have gone to the front lines of Gaza during the 2008-2009 Palestinian-Israeli conflict, remarked. The Indonesian surgeons have planned to stay in Gaza for two to four weeks.
"We will see the conditions, and if possible, we have a replacement. However, the conditions there make it rather difficult for us to get in and out of (Gaza)," he pointed out.
Several Indonesia-assisted facilities, including the Indonesian Hospital (RSI) in the Gaza Strip, were damaged during Israeli airstrikes.
"Damage has been caused due to the bombs. There is also an Indonesian guesthouse that is in the same complex as the hospital. However, what is crucial now is the need for medicines, such as alcohol, betadine, and others. We bring some from Indonesia," he remarked.
Gaza's Health Ministry was quoted by Aljazeera as saying that at least 212 Palestinians were killed, including 61 children and 36 women, and over 1,500 others were injured in Israeli airstrikes that bombed civilian apartments and also a tower hosting offices of media outlets, such as Aljazeera and the Associated Press (AP).
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Translator: Andi Firdaus, Fardah
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
Copyright © ANTARA 2021
