Volunteers Assigned to Help Construction of Gaza Indonesian Hospital Back Home

Jakarta, 9 Jumadil Awwal 1437/17 February 2016 (MINA) – The three volunteers of the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), recruited from the Al-Fatah Islamic Boarding School in the West Java city of Bogor, namely Edy Wahyudi (Site Manager of the Gaza Indonesian Hospital), Karidi and Miyanto, arrived at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport at 22:40 pm after a long flight from Cairo with a stopover at the Abu Dhabi Airport.

They returned after completing their task, following the handover of the Gaza Indonesian Hospital to Palestinian Health Ministry and the opening of the hospital to serve local patients.

After nearly five years of construction, with delays caused by fighting and restrictions on imports imposed by Israel and Egypt, the Gaza Indonesian Hospital opened its doors on December 27, 2015 and has since been treating more than 250 patients a day.

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Built on a hilltop outside Jabalya, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, it serves 300,000 people who live in the far north of the territory, an area hard hit in the conflict with Israel in 2014.

Their return is delayed for a long time as they had to wait for the reopening of the Rafah Crossing by the Egyptian authorities. There are two volunteers who were still in the besieged enclave and have not been able to return to their homeland.

The Rafah border crossing have previously never been opened. However, on 13-14 February, the border was opened and three volunteers could come out on the last day.

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Earlier, 14 volunteers had arrived in Indonesia several months ago.

Built on a hilltop outside Jabalya, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, it serves 300,000 people who live in the far north of the territory, an area hard hit in the conflict with Israel in 2014. (L/P008/R07)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)