Jakarta: Indonesia denied on Tuesday an Israeli claim that a hospital built in Gaza using Indonesian funding sits atop a network of Hamas tunnels and is located near a launchpad for rocket attacks.
The hospital, situated in the north of the Gaza Strip near the fortified border with Israel, was built using Indonesian charity funds.
"The Indonesian Hospital in Gaza is a facility built by the Indonesian people entirely for humanitarian purposes and to serve the medical needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza," Indonesia's foreign ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
The statement came a day after Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said the Indonesian Hospital had been built at a site that sat on top of a network of Hamas tunnels.
He also said Hamas was using a nearby area as a base to launch rockets into Israel.
The ministry refuted the claims about the hospital, which, like other medical centres in war-ravaged Gaza, is currently treating patients far beyond its capacity.
The Indonesian charity that operates the hospital, MER-C, also denied the facility was used by Hamas.
"What Israel accused us of can be a precondition for them to launch an attack at the Indonesian hospital in Gaza," MER-C chief Sarbini Abdul Murad said in Jakarta on Monday.
Hamas has repeatedly denied Israeli accusations that hospitals and other civilian infrastructure are being used by its operatives.
Israel has for a month relentlessly pounded the besieged Gaza Strip in its war on Hamas, bombing hospitals and other civilian infrastructure. According to the health ministry in Gaza, Israel campaign has killed more than 10,000 people -- over 4,000 of them children.
