Indonesia readies island medical facility for 2,000 wounded Gazans
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A man carrying a wounded Palestinian as people walked past the rubble of houses and buildings destroyed during the war in Gaza, on Jan 20.
PHOTO: REUTERS
JAKARTA - Indonesia will convert a medical facility on its currently uninhabited island of Galang to treat about 2,000 wounded residents of Gaza, who will return home after their recovery, a presidential spokesman said on Aug 7.
Muslim-majority Indonesia has sent humanitarian aid to Gaza, after Israel started an offensive in October 2023 that Gaza health officials say has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians,
“Indonesia will give medical help for about 2,000 Gaza residents who became victims of war, those who are wounded, buried under debris,” the spokesman, Mr Hasan Nasbi, told reporters, adding that the exercise was not an evacuation.
Indonesia plans to allocate the facility on Galang island, off its island of Sumatra and south of Singapore, to treat wounded Gaza residents and to temporarily shelter their families, he said, adding that nobody lives on the island now.
The patients will be taken back to Gaza after they have healed, Mr Hasan said.
He did not give a timeframe nor further details, referring questions to Indonesia’s foreign and defence ministries, which did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The plan comes months after President Prabowo Subianto’s offer to shelter wounded Palestinians
In response to Mr Trump’s suggestion, the Foreign Ministry of Indonesia, which backs a two-state solution to resolve the Middle East crisis, said at the time that it “strongly rejects any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians”.
A hospital to treat victims of the Covid-19 pandemic opened in 2020 on Galang, which had been until 1996 a sprawling refugee camp run by the United Nations, housing 250,000 refugees who fled the Vietnam War. REUTERS
