Indonesia Asks Philippines for Help Evacuating Its Citizens from Gaza
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11 October 2023 12:41 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi has spoken with her Philippines counterpart Enrique Manalo to ask for help in evacuating Indonesian citizens from Gaza amid the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestine.
“Foreign Minister Retno has communicated with the Foreign Minister of the Philippines, Enrique Manalo,” the ministry’s spokesperson Lalu Muhammad Iqbal said in a press statement in Jakarta on Tuesday, Oct. 10.
Iqbal explained that Retno requested the Philippine government's assistance in evacuating Indonesian citizens from the conflict area if necessary. Minister Enrique immediately responded to the request by directing the Philippine team on the ground. The Philippines has an embassy in Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel.
Iqbal said Indonesia and the Philippines often help each other evacuate residents. Previously, Jakarta helped evacuate Filipinos from Yemen in 2015, Afghanistan in 2021, and Sudan in 2023 when clashes broke out.
The Indonesian government, he went on, was seeking all possible ways through various channels to protect Indonesian citizens and to stop violence in Palestine and Israel.
As previously reported, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry said the government was preparing contingency plans for various scenarios, including the possibility of evacuating citizens through Palestine’s neighboring countries, namely Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt.
"We are coordinating with the Indonesian embassies in Amman, Beirut, and Cairo to evacuate Indonesian citizens who are in the Palestinian territory, especially 10 citizens in the Gaza Strip,” Iqbal said.
The latest ministry’s data showed that 45 Indonesian nationals are in Palestine, with 10 in the Gaza Strip and 35 in the West Bank. There are also 230 Indonesians in the middle of a religious tour across Israel when the strike occurred.
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