The airstrike launched by Israel on Saturday (10/8) on the At-Tabiin school in the Daraj area killed more than 100 people and injured hundreds more. Some of the victims were evacuated with their bodies no longer intact. Others are still buried under the rubble of buildings.
Witnesses said they saw at least three missiles hit the area of the school, which is part of a mosque and is home to about 6,000 refugees. Israeli fighter jets struck as refugees in the shelter were preparing for morning prayers.
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly condemned the Israeli attack and urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to investigate it.
Indonesia emphasized that Israel must be held responsible for all these crimes and urged an end to all forms of impunity against the Jewish state.
Middle East observer at the University of Indonesia, Yon Machmudi, assessed that the Israeli bombing of the school, which was clearly known as a refugee camp, was a very terrible tragedy.
“This is yet another genocide that is right before our eyes but the world cannot do anything, as if they are paralyzed by the actions taken by Israel. Even though it is clear that the actions taken by Israel are truly violating international law,” Yon told VOA on Sunday (11/8).
Yon could not understand why a country that had been clearly stated by the International Court of Justice (International Court of Justice/ICJ) is carrying out an illegal occupation, still continuing and even more brutally committing genocide in Gaza. According to him, international commitment is needed and countries that have close relations with Israel, such as the United States (US), to be able to speak out louder to put pressure on Israel to stop the war in Gaza.
The UN Security Council, said Yon, must immediately meet and give a mandate to major countries to implement the resolutions that have been produced, as well as follow up on the recommendations issued by the International Court of Justice.
Interviewed separately, Hasbi Aswar, a lecturer in international relations at the Islamic University of Indonesia, said there must be more concrete and firm steps from the countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which have so far preferred to provide verbal commitments.
“In the OIC, there are (member countries) that have normalized (relations) with Israel, such as the Gulf countries. Then there is Turkey, which has had relations with Israel, then Egypt, Jordan. There are also other OIC countries that are hostile to Israel,” he said.
In the current situation, the OIC must take stronger diplomatic efforts to pressure Israel to stop its military aggression in Gaza. He gave an example of Arab countries being able to ban their territory from being used for the movement of goods and services as one of the efforts to pressure Israel.
The Israel-Hamas war that has been going on since October 7 last year has killed at least 39,790 Palestinians and injured 91,702 others. The war began with an attack by the Hamas militant group on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people. Hamas also kidnapped 250 others, most of whom were released in the first ceasefire agreement last November. (fw/em)
