The Baptist Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has condemned Israeli’s Palm Sunday attack on al-Ahli Arab Hospital, the last functioning hospital in Gaza City.

It said in a statement the Israeli forces had destroyed the two-storey Genetic Laboratory, damaged the pharmacy and emergency department buildings, and caused damage to surrounding structures, including St Philip the Evangelist Chapel.

The hospital can no longer function with staff and patients being forced to flee in the dead of night after a military warning at 2am to evacuate the hospital.

• READ MORE: Israeli forces bomb al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, forcing patients to flee
• Health workers call for NZ government to join global demands for ambulance massacre inquiry
• Other Israeli war on Gaza reports

The bombing of the hospital began minutes later. It was hit by at least two missiles, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

At least three people were reported killed.

“The Diocese of Jerusalem is appalled,” the church statement said, adding that the Baptist hospital had been bombed “for the fifth time since the beginning of the war in 2023 — and this time was on the morning of Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week.”

It added: “We call upon all governments and people of goodwill to intervene to stop all kinds of attacks on medical and humanitarian institutions.”

Qatar says attack a ‘horrific massacre’
The Qatar government described the Israeli attack as a “horrific massacre and a heinous crime against civilians” that constituted a grave violation of international humanitarian law.

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry warned about the collapse of the health system in Gaza and the expansion of the cycle of violence across the region.

It said the international community must assume its responsibilities in protecting civilians.

It reaffirmed Qatar’s backing of the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.

Israel has repeatedly attacked hospitals in the Palestinian enclave with impunity throughout its devastating war, said the Gaza Government Media Office.

Attacks on 36 hospitals
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli attacks on 36 hospitals since October 2023 include:

• In November 2023, Israeli tanks surrounded the Indonesian Hospital in Beit Lahiya and fired artillery at the complex, killing at least 12 Palestinians.
• Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was subjected to a prolonged Israeli siege starting in March 2024. By early April last year, the World Health Organisation reported that the facility, Gaza’s largest medical complex, was “in ruins” and no longer functional. Dozens of bodies were later recovered from the hospital grounds and surrounding areas, indicating that patients and medical staff had been killed and placed in mass graves.
• In March 2024, an Israeli nighttime attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis killed two Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy who had undergone surgery two days earlier.
• At least 50 people were injured in the same month in an Israeli drone attack next to the entrance of the al-Helal al-Emirati Maternity Hospital in the Tal as-Sultan area of Rafah city.
• In May, Rafah’s Kuwaiti Speciality Hospital was forced to shut down after an Israeli attack just outside the gates of the hospital killed two of its medical staff.
• In December, Israeli soldiers stormed Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, torching large sections, ordering hundreds of people to leave and kidnapping its director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya — who is still detained by the Israeli military without charge — and other medical staff.
• In March 2025, Israel blew up the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, destroying Gaza’s specialised cancer treatment facility as well as an adjacent medical school.

The Tabernacle Bible Church of Indonesia’s congregation from the Intan Jaya regency in Papua has fled into the forests in fear after the killing of a pastor at the weekend, allegedly by the military, reports CNN Indonesia.

The church (GKII) says it believes Rev Yeremia Zanambani was shot dead by members of the TNI (Indonesian military) on Saturday, September 19.

This is different from a statement issued earlier by the TNI which claimed that Zanambani had been shot by a “criminal armed group” (KKB) – the Indonesian government’s term for the rebel Free Papua Movement (OPM).

• READ MORE: Military accused of shooting dead a pastor – call for inquiry
• Week of violence in Papuan regency culminates in pastor’s death

The information on the shooting was first uploaded by the GKII’s Facebook account @gkiipusat.

GKII national secretariat head Yahya Jahatela confirmed the information, saying that Zanambani was shot as he was going to his pig pen to feed the animals.

“Yes, that’s correct. Currently we are still waiting on written information and data from Papua, but the information is indeed correct,” said Jahatela when contacted by CNN Indonesia by phone yesterday.

Jahatela said that following the incident, seven or eight churches were empty with their congregations seeking refuge in the forest.

‘Congregations afraid’
“The congregations have fled into the forests because they’re afraid,” he said.

The GKII considers the incident to be a serious blow for church services in Intan Jaya and it is distressed about the loss of a spiritual figure for the Moni tribal people.

Zanambani was the head of the GKII church for the Hitadipa regency in Intan Jaya and was known as an evangelist who was dedicated and had integrity as well as a translator of the Bible into the Moni local language.

Jahatela said that they intend to write a protest to the government after obtaining complete data from the Papua GKII.

“[We’re] praying for the planned burial … and hope that the security forces can be prudent and behave fairly in safeguarding innocent people,” wrote the GKII central office on its Facebook account.

Earlier, III Joint Regional Defense Command (Kogabwihan) information head Colonel Czi IGN Suriastawa said that Zanambani had been shot dead by an armed criminal group in Hitadipa.

According to Suriastawa, armed criminal groups had been spreading “slander” by accusing the TNI of shooting Zanambani.

‘Attracting attention’
“As I said yesterday, they are looking for momentum to attract attention from the United Nations General Assembly meeting at the end of the month,” said Suriastawa in a press release on Sunday.

Suriastawa appealed to local people not to be provoked by the slander, particularly through social media.

“It’s clear that its being setup and manipulated to provoke the people, corner the TNI and Polri [Indonesian police] and government in the lead up to the UN SU (general session),” he said.

Suriastawa said that the death of Zanambani added to the long list of casualties.

He said that several days ago Papuan armed groups had attacked a civilian and two TNI soldiers.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Gereja Duga Pendeta Tewas di Intan Jaya Papua Ditembak TNI”.

The Alliance of West Papuan Baptist Churches has condemned Monday’s attack which killed a New Zealander and wounded two other workers at the Freeport gold and copper mine.

In an open letter from “the people of West Papua” to the family of Graeme Thomas Wall, the alliance appealed yesterday to “not be angry and hate people of West Papua”.

Alliance president Rev Dr Socratez S. Yoman, who has visited New Zealand on several occasions, said “we also from 1961 to 2020 became victims of atrocities and brutality from the Indonesian Army and National Police for the sake of gold and dollars from Freeport for 58 years”.

READ MORE: Background on the West Papuan conflict, social justice

The open letter said:

Dear Beloved
Brothers and Sisters
Graeme Thomas Wall family
In New Zealand.

Kia Ora,

The Wall family who are grieving, we also share the sadness and deep sorrow with you.

We strongly condemn the perpetrators of crimes who sacrificed the late Graeme Thomas Wall and injured two Indonesian citizens on Monday, 30 March 2020 in Kuala Kencana, Timika, West Papua.

We humbly request that the family of the late Graeme Thomas Wall not be angry and hate people of West Papua. Because we also from 1961 to 2020 became victims of atrocities and brutality from the Indonesian Army and National Police for the sake of gold and dollars from Freeport for 58 years.

Dear Wall family, this cruelty and crime is repeated again as happened 18 years ago on Saturday, August 31, 2002 at Mile 62-63 Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) shot dead 2 American citizens, namely Leon Edwin Burgon (71), Ricky Lynn Spier (41) and 1 Indonesian citizen, Bambang Riswanto.

Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, the family of the late Graeme, we know together and it is not a secret that the interests of robbing and stealing gold and dollars in Freeport Tembagapura are the Indonesian government, the Army and the Indonesian National Police.

The Free Papua Movement since the 1960s has fought for self-determination over our ancestral land or Free West Papua and has never fought to shoot civilians, set fire to school buildings and drive out local residents.

We know together that West Papua is a market for conflict and violence created by criminal groups of the Indonesian National Army who occupy and colonise the people of Papua and that they have economic, gold and dollar interests.

At the end of this letter, I want to convey to the family of the late Graeme Thomas Wall, the perpetrators of the shooting [are] not the OPM. Because the Kuala Kencana region is a super priority level of security for Indonesia’s national security.

Our prayers and hopes [are that] the late Graeme Thomas Wall family gets strength from the Lord Jesus Christ and comfort from the Holy Spirit.

Please accept our warm greetings from West Papua.

Rev. Dr. Socratez S. Yoman
President of the Alliance of West Papuan Baptist Churches
Ita Wakhu Purom
Tuesday, March 31, 2020