Jakarta (ANTARA) - Aqsa Working Group (AWG) Presidium Chairman M. Anshorullah has strongly condemned the Israeli attack on the Indonesian Hospital in the Gaza Strip on the day the international community celebrated World Children's Day on November 20.

When the Israeli troops launched the assault, which reportedly killed eight people, several hundred Palestinian children and babies were being treated at the hospital, Anshorullah noted in a recorded video statement received in Jakarta on Monday.

"This is really an extraordinary irony," he stated, adding that the hospital, which is located in Bait Lahiya, northern Gaza, is a pride of Indonesians, who built it with the spirit of love and peace.

Hence, the Israeli artillery shelling on the hospital has indeed ignored and trampled upon the dignity of all Indonesian people, he stressed.

Prior to this deadly attack, the Israeli ground troops and tanks had repeatedly targeted the area near the Indonesian Hospital, and this Israeli bombardment had damaged several facilities of the hospital.

A series of attacks and sieges the Israeli military continue to launch that had destroyed numerous civilian facilities, including hospitals, mosques, and schools, have shown the hopelessness of this Zionist state, he said.

"They (the Israelis) have felt hopeless because the ongoing bombardment and ground invasion on Gaza that they have been launching since the start of the war on October 7 until today have just made the international community furious at them," he remarked.

The genocidal attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, which have reportedly killed more than 11 thousand Palestinian civilians, two-thirds of them women and children, have caused Israel to be abandoned, Anshorullah noted.

"The Israelis have conducted an unprecedented genocide in human history," according to the presidium chairman of the working group, set up by the participants of the International Al Aqsa Conference held in Jakarta on August 21, 2008.

Meanwhile, in response to the Israeli attack on the Hospital in Gaza, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi released a statement that condemned the assault indicating a real violation of the international humanitarian law.

She urged all countries, especially those with close relations with Israel, to use their influence and power to urge it to stop its atrocities.

Marsudi said that her ministry has lost contact with three Indonesian citizens volunteering at the Indonesian Hospital.

Fresh armed conflict erupted between Palestine and Israel following a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel early in the morning on October 7.

Prior to the assault by Palestinian liberation fighters, Israel had continued its closure of Gaza crossings.

Palestine's news agency WAFA reported on September 25 that the Israeli closure of Gaza crossings had worsened the living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza.

According to WAFA, the Palestinians had already suffered from the severe impacts of "more than 17 years of tight Israeli land, sea, and air blockades."

Al Jazeera quoted Hamas, which governs Gaza, as stating that its assault on Israel was "a response to the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence."

In response to the unprecedented surprise attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and, according to Al Jazeera, pledged that Israeli forces would "turn all Hamas hideouts into rubble."

The ongoing Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which is home to more than two million people, has resulted in the deaths of more than eleven thousand Palestinian civilians and triggered a humanitarian crisis.

Related news: Aqsa Working Group urges Indonesians to defend their hospital in Gaza
Related news: Gaza: Indonesia condemns Israeli attack on Indonesian Hospital

Translator: Asri MS, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Anton Santoso
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