Prabowo Subianto in Favor of Sending Gaza Evacuees to Indonesian Islamic Boarding Schools

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Indonesia’s Defense Minister and President-elect Prabowo Subianto said he welcomed the suggestion of former East Java governor Khofifah Indar Parawansa to send 1,000 Gaza evacuees to Islamic boarding schools (pesantrens).”I will report it to Mr. President (Jokowi),” he told journalists on Friday, June 7, 2024, in response to the former East Java governor’s idea of providing the Gaza evacuees with education and treatment at pesantrens in East Java.Earlier, at the recent IISS Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Prabowo Subianto said President Joko Widodo a.k.a. Jokowi had urged him to evacuate around 1,000 Palestinians injured by Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip to Indonesia.The Gaza evacuees would then receive medical treatments at hospitals in Indonesia.Prabowo Subianto said several public figures from West Java have also expressed their readiness to receive the Gaza evacuees and send them to pesantrens in the province to be educated and treated well there.Speaking in connection with ways to resolve the armed conflict in Gaza, Subianto said earlier that the Indonesian government remains consistent with its belief that it must be solved through “ceasefire and negotiation.””Indonesia firmly supports the Palestinian independence, a two-state solution, and all efforts to reach an immediate ceasefire,” he remarked.Fresh armed conflict erupted between Palestine and Israel following a surprise attack by Hamas on Israel early in the morning of October 7, 2023.Prior to the assault by Palestinian liberation fighters in Israel, the Israeli government continued its closure of Gaza crossings.Palestine’s news agency WAFA reported on September 25, 2023, that the Israeli closure of Gaza crossings had worsened the living conditions of Palestinians in Gaza.According to WAFA, the Palestinians had already suffered from the severe impacts of “more than 17 years of tight Israeli land, sea, and air blockades.”Al Jazeera quoted Hamas, which governs Gaza, as stating that its assault on Israel was “a response to the desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and increased settler violence.”In response to the unprecedented surprise attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared war on Hamas and, according to Al Jazeera, pledged that Israeli forces would “turn all Hamas hideouts into rubble.”Since the war began on Oct 7, 2023, the Israeli armed forces have killed at least 36,550 Palestinian civilians and injured some 82,959 others as of June 4, 2024, according to Al Jazeera.Al Jazeera reported that many of those killed in Gaza are women and children. The Israeli aggression has also triggered a humanitarian catastrophe.ANTARAEditor’s Choice: Indonesia Calls for Special Attention to Condition of Workers in PalestineClick here to get the latest news updates from Tempo on Google News