TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - NGO Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C) has succeeded in sending a medical team from Indonesia to Gaza. On Monday, March 18, the health workers finally arrived in Palestine via Cairo, Egypt, with the help of WHO.

At least 11 health workers arrived in Gaza at exactly 17:15 local time or 22:15 Jakarta time. “They have arrived in Palestine,” the medical team told Central MER-C on Monday as quoted from the press release. They traveled about 100 meters by bus from the Rafah border crossing on the Egyptian side to reach Gaza.

MER-C said officials from the Gaza Health Ministry welcomed the medical team's arrival along with two MER-C non-medical volunteers who are already in Gaza, namely Fikri Rofiul Haq and Reza Aldilla Kurniawan. This brings the total number of MER-C volunteers in the besieged enclave to 13.

Sarbini Abdul Murad, the chairman of the MER-C Presidium, said that MER-C had been collaborating with various parties to send a medical team to Gaza, but had just succeeded thanks to WHO assistance. He assured that this cooperation with the WHO will continue.

“So we have tried through different channels and efforts to help the people of Gaza. Working with WHO is the right choice, so we didn't have to wait long in Cairo,” he said during a press conference at the MER-C HQ on Tuesday, March 19.

The eleven health workers are orthopedic surgeons, anesthesiologists, general practitioners, nurses, and midwives. They will be tasked with addressing the hospital crisis in southern Gaza on a rolling or rotating basis for at least two weeks to a month, as directed by WHO and the Gaza Ministry of Health.

Sarbini also said that the medical personnel will stay in Rafah and are not permitted to enter central or northern Gaza, which is under heavy Israeli attack.

NABIILA AZZAHRA

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