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Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned Israel Defense Forces soldiers for raising a flag over the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza.

“The use of military symbols and propaganda over the ruins of a destroyed hospital, especially when linked to a specific military operation, is a highly provocative act and cannot be justified,” Jakarta said in a statement posted to X.

According to Palestinian media reports, IDF troops hung a banner bearing an Israeli flag and reading, “A people that rises like a lioness, leaps up like a lion,” a reference to the official names of the two military operations against Iran. The banner was reportedly raised ahead of Israel’s 78th Independence Day, which was celebrated on Wednesday.

The 12-day war with Tehran in June 2025 was codenamed “Operation Rising Lion,” while the campaign that began on Feb. 28 was dubbed “Operation Roaring Lion” by the military.

Indonesia in its statement denounced the banner as an “insult to a humanitarian facility built from the solidarity of the Indonesian people for the Palestinian people.”

The Beit Lahia hospital is “a civilian facility dedicated solely to providing medical services for the people of Gaza, not a place for military propaganda or intimidation,” it claimed.

“Indonesia reiterates that hospitals and all medical facilities must be respected and protected under international humanitarian law,” added the statement.

Circulating | Israeli occupation forces display huge banner from the roof of the Indonesian hospital, northern Gaza. pic.twitter.com/UbRayI7xqF

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) April 20, 2026

The IDF in 2023 presented proof that the Indonesian Hospital, which was funded by NGOs from Indonesia and was inaugurated in 2016, was built on top of Hamas terrorist infrastructure. There were underground terrorist facilities there before the hospital was constructed, the military said.

Israeli soldiers during operations in the hospital also uncovered evidence tying the facility to Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, including a Toyota Corolla belonging to a slain hostage and bloodstains of another captive.

In 2024, the IDF published footage obtained from Hamas of terrorists planting explosives around 45 meters (148 feet) from the Indonesian Hospital.

“This is yet another example of Hamas’s cynical use of Gaza’s civilians and civilian establishments for terrorist activity and a gross violation of international law,” the army said.

Indonesia’s government in October dismissed reports that Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had planned to travel to Israel following his participation in a Gaza peace summit held in Egypt.

Israel’s Channel 12 and other outlets had cited unnamed sources indicating Prabowo had plans for what would have been a historic first visit by a head of state from the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.

Such a visit would have portended a potential normalization of ties with the Jewish state, and Indonesia had been named as one of those states with which Washington is seeking to expand the Abraham Accords, cemented during U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term.

On Sep. 23, Subianto delivered a speech at the United Nations General Assembly annual convention in New York, suggesting a shift in his country’s stance on Israel.

“We must have an independent Palestine, but we must also, we must also recognize, we must also respect, and we must also guarantee the safety and security of Israel. Only then can we have real peace. Real peace. No more hatred and suspicion. The only solution is this one: the two-state solution,” he said.

Subianto offered to contribute “20,000 or more of our sons and daughters” to serve in a multinational force to help provide security under a two-state arrangement. He closed his speech with greetings in numerous languages, including shalom, Hebrew for “peace,” and for both “hello” and “goodbye.”

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