Indonesian medical volunteer in Gaza, Fikri Rofiul Haq, says he will remain at the hospital and will not evacuate.
**Medan, Indonesia – At this time of the year, it should be strawberry season in the Gaza Strip.
Instead, the fields traditionally planted with strawberries in September and harvested from November are now battlefields.
One of the most fertile regions for Palestine’s renowned strawberries is Beit Lahia, with its good climate, rich soil and high-quality water supplies.
Located in north Gaza, Beit Lahia is also the home of the Indonesia Hospital where medical volunteer from Indonesia Fikri Rofiul Haq is based with the Indonesian humanitarian organisation the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C).
“The Israeli forces have been bombing fields across the Gaza Strip and a lot of crops have died”, Haq told Al Jazeera.
“This year, there won’t be the usual produce like strawberries, even though it is the winter season,” he said.
Amid the horror of Israel’s war on Gaza, the destruction of Palestine’s strawberry harvest may seem insignificant.
But for Haq – one of three Indonesian MER-C volunteers based at the Indonesia Hospital – the memory of Gaza’s strawberries helps him cope. Each day is now a matter of survival in the territory, where Israel is now concentrating its attacks on hospitals.
“At the beginning of the war, we were still able to get some goods from the area around the hospital, like vegetables and instant noodles, but now it is impossible to get fresh produce like onions, tomatoes and cucumbers,” he said, speaking to Al Jazeera through WhatsApp voice messages.
“At the Indonesia Hospital now, staff only get a meal once a day at lunchtime, which is provided by [the neighbouring] Al-Shifa Hospital. For breakfast and dinner, staff eat biscuits or dates,” he said.