JAKARTA: Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi requested the International Committee of the Red Cross’ (ICRC’s) support for evacuating 10 Indonesian citizens from Palestine’s Gaza Strip currently under Israeli bombardment, reported ANTARA news agency.
“To this end, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi has spoken to ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger in Geneva,“ Indonesian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Lalu Muhammad Iqbal stated here on Tuesday.
According to the ministry’s data, 45 Indonesian citizens currently reside in Palestine. Some 10 of them are in the Gaza Strip which has been under brutal Israeli bombardments since October 7.
In addition to those in Palestine, the ministry noted that 230 Indonesian citizens were also doing religious tours in Israel when the surprise attack took place in the early morning of October 7.
Regarding her talks with the ICRC president, Iqbal said Foreign Minister Marsudi has appealed to the ICRC to support Indonesia’s efforts to evacuate its citizens from the Gaza Strip.
Minister Marsudi also urged the ICRC to support endeavors to end violence and implement a humanitarian corridor into Gaza, he stated.
Apart from holding talks with the ICRC president, Marsudi had also discussed the current situation with representatives of Brazil who currently holds the presidency of the UN Security Council and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
Minister Marsudih highlighted the importance of pushing for an immediate end to the armed violence and a humanitarian corridor into Gaza, Iqbal remarked.
The new armed conflict erupted again following the Hamas surprise attack on Israel on Saturday morning. Prior to the Palestinian liberation fighters’ assaults, Israel continued its closure of Gaza crossings.
The WAFA News Agency reported on September 25 that the Israeli closure of the 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.”
With regard to the human cost of this new armed conflict between Palestine and Israel, Turkiye’s media outlet TRT World reported on Wednesday that at least 1,200 Israelis had been killed and 2,900 others had been injured.
The repeated Israeli bombardments had increased the Palestinian death toll to 900 and caused 4,500 others to get wounded, TRT World reported. -Bernama-Antara
