VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - The evacuation of Indonesian citizens from Gaza, which is at the center of the Israel-Palestine conflict, will likely start Wednesday local time, Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi informed.

"Evacuation will possibly be able to be carried out today. However, I want to underline the word 'possibly' because the situation on the ground is unpredictable," she said at a press conference here on Wednesday.

The government has moved a team from Cairo to Rafah on the Egypt-Palestine border to evacuate Indonesian nationals from Gaza.

"After going through multiple checks, our team from Cairo arrived in Rafah on the Egypt side at 3:53 p.m. Western Indonesia Time. Now, we just have to see what will happen on the side of Gaza (border)," the minister disclosed.

Marsudi said that she has been communicating with all parties that have assets in Gaza and received information that there is a possibility that the evacuation of foreign nationals, including Indonesians, will be carried out soon.

However, she pointed out that it may not be possible to carry out the evacuation all at once, instead, it would need to be carried out in stages by prioritizing safety.

"The situation is really dynamic, but we must ensure that if there is a travel (evacuation), the travel must have security guarantees from all parties so that the evacuation can be carried out safely," she said.

"Do not ask when evacuation will be carried out, but what I can assure you is that we continue to make efforts," she added.

Meanwhile, director of the protection of Indonesian citizens and Indonesian legal entities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, said that there are currently ten Indonesian citizens in Gaza.

Of the ten nationals, three are volunteering with the Indonesian Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C), which is serving at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza. The three have decided not to evacuate.

"The three volunteers chose to continue carrying out humanitarian work in Gaza, and we respect that decision," he informed.

Meanwhile, the remaining seven Indonesians, comprising two families of Indonesian nationals who got married to Palestinians, will be evacuated soon.

The Indonesian citizens will be evacuated from their homes in north Gaza and south Gaza and taken to the Rafah border. (Antaranews)