Foreign Ministry Denies Collaboration with Israel to Evacuate Indonesian Citizens from Gaza

Jakarta, MINA – The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has denied the Jewish Incident media report that Indonesia was collaborating with Israel to evacuate Indonesian citizens from the Gaza Strip in 2023.

Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said that communication and coordination was carried out with various parties in the process of evacuating Indonesian citizens from Gaza at that time.

“This evacuation process is completely a humanitarian mission that has nothing to do with the issue of normalizing relations or any political issues,” said Iqbal in his statement on Thursday.

Iqbal emphasized that Indonesia’s political position regarding Palestine is “firm, clear and consistent” namely fighting for Palestinian independence.

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Foreign media Jewish Insider said Indonesia’s cooperation with Israel in evacuating Indonesian citizens from Gaza last year “left the door open” for the possibility of diplomatic relations between the two countries which had previously been postponed. They wrote this in an article on Wednesday.

Seven out of ten Indonesian citizens have been successfully repatriated, while three others who are volunteers from the Medical and Humanitarian Institute (MER-C) have decided to stay in Gaza. One of the three volunteers then asked to be evacuated in December 2023.

There were ten Indonesian citizens living in Gaza when Israel began attacking the enclave in October 2023. (L/RE1/P2)

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)