Indonesia ready to send peacekeepers, medical staff to Gaza

Muslim-majority Indonesia is ready to send “significant peacekeeping forces” and medical personnel to Gaza if Hamas accepts a new ceasefire proposal, the president-elect said on Saturday Prabowo Subianto.

US President Joe Biden announced Israel’s road map for permanent peace in Gaza on Friday, as Israeli troops marched into central Rafah despite international objections to any attack on the southern city.

Prabowo, who will succeed President Joko Widodo in October after winning February’s election, welcomed the plan, describing it as “an important step” toward ending the war.

If requested by the United Nations, Indonesia was prepared to send “significant peacekeeping forces to maintain and monitor this potential ceasefire,” Prabowo said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.

“We are also ready to immediately send medical personnel to operate field hospitals in Gaza with the consent of all parties.”

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Prabowo said Indonesia was prepared to “evacuate, receive and treat” up to 1,000 patients in its hospitals “in the immediate future.”

“In the interests of all parties, we must do our best to achieve a real and lasting solution,” he said at the security forum attended by defense ministers from around the world.

Hamas said Friday that it “views positively” the Israeli plan.

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Biden said the proposal would begin with a comprehensive six-week ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal from populated areas of Gaza.

Hamas, which started the war with its attack on Israel on October 7, would release hostages in return.

The two sides would then negotiate a longer-term agreement aimed at ending the war.

amj-mba/qan