The Daily Populous Friday June 13rd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by en.tempo.co and submitted by PrithvinathReddy

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Coordinating Minister for Food Security Zulkifli Hasan announced that the Indonesian government will provide food assistance in the form of 10,000 tons of rice to Palestine. Zulkifli said the Indonesian National Armed Forces will carry out the aid shipment.

"Hopefully, the Indonesian National Armed Forces will be able to sail to Jordan or Palestine this month," Zulhas said after a limited coordination meeting at the Ministry of Food Security office in Central Jakarta on Thursday, June 12, 2025.

The Head of the National Food Authority (Bapanas), Arief Prasetyo Adi, stated that the preparation for the shipment is targeted to be completed within the next three weeks. The budget for this aid is sourced from Indonesian Aid under the Ministry of Finance.

"However, since it will require government rice reserves, the National Food Authority has assigned the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to provide 10,000 tons of rice to Palestine," Arief told reporters after the meeting.

Since March 2, 2025, Israel has closed the Gaza crossing, halting the entry of food, medicine, and humanitarian aid. Before the blockade was imposed, the UN and other international aid organizations were responsible for distributing aid to the region.

Israel argued that there were concerns that humanitarian aid would be exploited by Hamas, a Palestinian militant group considered a terrorist organization by Israel and some other countries. Although on January 19, they agreed to a ceasefire and a prisoner exchange agreement with the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Israel launched another attack on March 18 in the Gaza area.

On the other hand, Israel, together with the United States, proposed a new aid distribution system through an organization named the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. However, the UN and other humanitarian organizations rejected the plan, viewing it as an attempt by Israel to control the distribution of aid politically.

Rizky Dewi Ayu contributed to the writing of this article

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chitowngirl12 on June 13rd, 2025 at 14:12 UTC »

Are they going to let the rice into Gaza? That's the problem.

1leggeddog on June 13rd, 2025 at 14:09 UTC »

Will it even make it?

joeri1505 on June 13rd, 2025 at 13:34 UTC »

Although its obviously great, the issue isnt really a lack of aid Its access and safety thats the issues