Abstract: Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit has launched an interactive platform geolocating,  mapping and analysing Israeli attacks on the Indonesian Hospital in the Gaza Strip, during the latest aggression which began on October 7th, 2023. 

Launch Platform here.

Date of incident: Ongoing

Platform Launch date: December 20, 2023

Location: Beit Lahia, Gaza, Palestine

Commissioned by: Self-initiated

Methodologies: 3D Modelling,Image matching,OSINT, Geolocation, pattern identification.

Forum: Media, Advocacy, Legal Process

Area: Airstrikes, Attacks on Healthcare, Mass Graves

Project led by: Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigation Unit

Gathering Visual Evidence

Through documentation and geolocation of visual evidence from various news agencies and open-source platforms covering different forms of violations in Gaza, we compiled a visual database of hundreds of incidents. Our database indicates that the healthcare system in northern Gaza has been and continues to be systemically targeted since the beginning of the offensive on the besieged strip, with the earliest attack on the Indonesian Hospital, the largest hospital in Northern Gaza, on October 7th. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report confirms our findings. As of 25 January, they reported that only 14 of 36 hospitals in Gaza were partially functional. These attacks prompted us to direct our efforts toward documenting, cross-referencing and analysing attacks on this hospital and its surroundings, and to build a timeline of the events.

Identifying Patterns

Our analysis suggests a repeated and consistent pattern of attacks on hospitals across the Gaza Strip, taking 4 phases as follows: Intimidation, direct targeting, siege, and invasion. 

Our findings were fundamentally based on an extensive collection of visual evidence of documented attacks on the Indonesian hospital, one of Gaza’s most persistently targeted healthcare facilities. Subsequently, we built a 3D hospital model based on tens of gathered and verified videos. We used the model to situate hundreds of geolocated incidents of Israeli attacks on this hospital.

The analysis rendered the systemic attack on the Indonesian Hospital visible through the four phases mentioned above (as highlighted in the coming section). Furthermore, our colleagues at Forensic Architecture have documented a similar pattern of attacks on al-Shifa Hospital, and in their mapping that covers the reports of Israeli military attacks on medical infrastructure in Gaza. 

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Four Stages of Attack on the Indonesian Hospital

First: Intimidation

On October 7th 2023, media outlets reported that the IOF conducted an airstrike outside the Indonesian hospital, killing two men including a staff member and injuring 5  others. This was the first reported attack within the vicinity of the hospital and its surroundings. These attacks caused a state of terror and immense fear for civilians and patients sheltering inside, putting their lives at risk. It constitutes part of an intimidation campaign that has been accompanied by other coercive practices including the dropping of leaflets and ordering Palestinians to be transferred to the southern part of Gaza–areas which the IOF also targets according to our documentation.

Second: Direct Targeting

The footage we gathered shows that the IOF began targeting the immediate surroundings of the hospital, where hundreds of patients and civilians were seeking shelter, on Nov 11th. Footage from this day shows that Israeli airstrikes targeted three locations to the west of the Indonesian hospital with heavy bombing. 

We analysed this footage and cross-referenced the location of the targeted areas with a post-incident image that confirms the destruction in these areas. On the evening of the same day, the IOF targeted an area in the vicinity of the hospital with disregard for the safety of the people inside again. Geolocated footage shows that shrapnel and objects flying from the blast hit the hospital causing damage to the hospital and threatening civilians and patients taking shelter inside.

Third: Siege

On Nov 20th, Israeli tanks were found approaching the Indonesian hospital from the Sheikh Zayed area from the northeast. In monitoring the destruction of built-up areas in northern Gaza, we observed that two of the high-rise residential buildings we see in this footage were later destroyed. The footage we analysed proves that within three hours of the IOF’s tanks approaching the Indonesian hospital, the army raided the adjacent Halab School and IOF soldiers were seen shooting at the walls.

On the evening of the same day, fires broke out in the vicinity of the hospital to the east due to the IOF’s heavy shelling of the area. According to the testimonies we collected, the IOF had completely cut off the Indonesian hospital from its surroundings and put it under siege. 

The complete siege on the Indonesian terrorised both health workers and patients inside and prevented them from fleeing the hospital and its surrounding schools. Consequently, staff, patients and displaced people sheltering in the hospital feared an imminent raid by the IOF inside the hospital. 

Fourth: Invasion

According to online messages posted by witnesses on the ground during the attacks on the Indonesian on November 24th in the early hours of the morning, the IOF directly targeted the hospital’s generators. In a recorded testimony from the same day, witnesses reported that Israeli soldiers invaded the hospital and forcefully evacuated it. According to the official reports of the army, the army left the hospital five hours later, at around 10:00 am.

We were unable to document any footage taken during this raid on the hospital. However, footage released online on November 30th shows extensive damage to the hospital interiors after the raid. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza also reported that a woman and two men were killed during the raid, while civilians from inside the hospital were detained.

A report released by Al-Jazeera on November 30th details the extensive damage inflicted on the walls of the hospital and its surroundings during the invasion. The footage shows that the IOF's attack on the facility led to the destruction of the main entrance and the front yard. Another piece of footage taken on the 23rd, a day before the raid on the hospital, shows horrific scenes of dead bodies piling up outside the morgue of the hospital as people were being forced out. 

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The pattern of attacks on the Indonesian Hospital, which constituted of four stages, shows deliberate attempts by the IOF to destroy and render the facility inoperative. Our research into systematic and widespread IOF targeting of civilian infrastructure is ongoing. 

Conclusion

As we continue to document visual evidence, it is becoming evident that the pattern of attack on the Indonesian hospital was not exceptional. Rather, since the beginning of the war on Gaza, the hospitals of Al Shifa in the Al Remal neighbourhood, Nasser Hospital in Gaza City, and Kamal Edwan in Beit Lahia among others were also targeted in a similar manner of destruction and forcible eviction. The impact of this systematic and widespread pattern of targeting medical infrastructure and expelling civilians in seek of treatment and shelter 

Launch Platform here.

Al Shifa Hospital

Our partners at Forensic Architecture have documented a similar pattern of attacks on Al Shifa Hospital.