Indonesia Invited To Do Airdrop Assistance To Gaza, Foreign Minister Sugiono: Outside Rice

Deployment of humanitarian aid to Gaza. (Wikimedia Commons/Stff. Christian Sullivan)

JAKARTA - Indonesia received an invitation to send humanitarian aid to residents of the Gaza Strip, Palestine via airdrop, said Foreign Minister Sugiono, ensuring that it is not to send rice aid that is being prepared by the government.

Speaking to reporters in a press statement at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, Foreign Minister Sugiono said the invitation came from Jordan.

"We thank Jordan, we received an invitation to carry out the airdrop of aid coordinated by Jordan. There are already several countries that will do the airdrop," he explained, Thursday, August 7.

In this regard, Foreign Minister Sugiono ensured that the airdrop was not carried out for the planned delivery of 10,000 tonnes as stated in last Sunday's "Grandly Defense Action".

Foreign Minister Sugiono said that rice is better done by road, considering hazards and other technical factors.

"Airdrop is not for rice, for other assistance, other foodstuffs, technically later," he said.

Earlier, Foreign Minister Sugiono on Tuesday confirmed that access to humanitarian aid assistance to the Gaza Strip was opened normally, reaffirming the ban on making hunger a weapon in the Palestinian enclave.

The deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza since the latest conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli militant groups broke out on October 7, 2023, was exacerbated by an Israeli blockade that left Gaza one of the worst hunger crises in its history, according to organizations and international humanitarian aid groups.

Foreign Minister Sugiono said his party hoped that the humanitarian aid line would be opened, given the great risks and technical problems of sending aid by airdrop.

"Don't make hunger a weapon, as a tool," said the Indonesian Foreign Minister.

"Open the widest possible humanitarian aid, because this is the victim of children, we often see the pictures everywhere and I'm sure whoever has humanity will be disturbed," he said.