Indonesia willing to temporarily house 1,000 refugees from Gaza
‘We are ready to evacuate the wounded, the traumatized, the orphans,’ president says, adds Palestinians would be able to return once they’re healed and Gaza is safe enough to return to
Indonesia is ready to temporarily shelter Palestinians hit by the war in Gaza, the country’s president, Prabowo Subianto, said on Wednesday, estimating there could be 1,000 in the first wave, as he started a trip to the Middle East.
Prabowo said he has instructed his foreign minister to quickly discuss with the Palestinian side and other parties about how to evacuate impacted Palestinians to Indonesia, a Muslim-majority country.
“We are ready to evacuate the wounded, the traumatized, the orphans,” Prabowo said, adding that the victims would be in Indonesia temporarily until they have fully recovered from their injuries and the situation in Gaza was safe for their return.
Jakarta has been advocating for a two-state solution and has sent humanitarian aid.
Indonesia wants to increase its role in seeking a resolution to the conflict, Prabowo said, adding this plan is not easy.
“Indonesia’s commitment in supporting the safety of Palestinians and their independence has pushed our government to act more actively,” Prabowo said, as he was about to embark on an overseas trip that includes Turkey, Egypt and Qatar.
Prabowo’s comments came two months after Indonesia’s foreign ministry said it “strongly rejects any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians” as US President Donald Trump suggested permanently moving Palestinians out of Gaza.
Last month, reports in Hebrew media said that Israel and Indonesia were discussing a pilot program to allow Gazans to emigrate to the southeast Asian country for work, adding that around 100 Gazans would be part of a first-wave work program, likely in construction.
Since Israel and Indonesia — the world’s largest Muslim country — do not have diplomatic relations, a special communication channel was opened between Jerusalem and Jakarta to develop the program, the report said.
While that plan has not yet been carried out, Jakarta seems to have shifted to being open to receiving even larger numbers of Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
Indonesia’s president also said last year, before he officially assumed the presidency, that the country was willing to send peacekeeping troops to Gaza if needed.
Trump triggered global perplexity in early February by suggesting the US “take over” Gaza and turn it into a “Middle East Riviera” while forcing its Palestinian inhabitants to relocate to Egypt, Jordan, or other countries. He said this month, however, that no Gazans would be expelled.
While far-right ministers in the government who have urged using the war as an opportunity to reestablish Israeli settlements in the Strip lauded the plan, the Palestinian Authority and Arab nations rejected it outright.
Despite public opposition among the region’s leaders, the government has moved forward with plans to encourage Palestinians to relocate.
In January, The Times of Israel’s sister site, Zman Israel, reported that the coalition was conducting secret contacts with Congo and other African nations for accepting thousands of immigrants from Gaza.
In March, a Lebanese report said that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi informed other Arab leaders that he is willing to temporarily relocate half a million residents from Gaza to northern Sinai in a designated city as part of the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
However, Cairo denied the report, saying, “Egypt’s position is firm in its absolute and final rejection of any attempt to displace Palestinians, and the Cairo Arab Summit’s emergency plan for reconstruction is based on it.”
Last month, two key Arab nations’ organizations instead endorsed an Egyptian counterproposal for rehabilitating Gaza that is based on leaving inhabitants in place.
The Arab plan envisions an independent committee of technocrats running Gaza for a six-month period before handing off control of the Strip to the Palestinian Authority. It provides for Palestinians to remain in the Strip while it is being rebuilt, as opposed to Trump’s proposal that the entire population be relocated.
The Trump administration has sent mixed signals about the Egyptian plan, and, according to the Axios news site, the US has not been actively working to advance the president’s original emigration plan, with Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff focused instead on restoring the ceasefire and hostage release deal between Israel and Hamas.
Israel and the US have argued that Gaza is not a safe place to live after nearly a year and a half of Israeli bombardments targeting Hamas, and that Palestinians should be given the opportunity to move elsewhere. But Israel’s refusal to publicly commit to allowing Palestinians who leave the ability to return has led to further questioning of its motives.
Trump first revealed his relocation proposal as Netanyahu visited the White House in January, amid the now-defunct ceasefire and hostage release deal that was mediated by the US, Qatar and Egypt. The agreement halted 15 months of war in Gaza that began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251, mostly civilians.
The war caused widespread devastation in Gaza, raising the need for a comprehensive rehabilitation plan that Israel has demanded include a new administration to replace Hamas’s rule.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 50,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,600 terrorists inside Israel on October 7. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
The Times of Israel Community.