Indonesia Plans to Treat 2000 Victims from Gaza on an Uninhabited Island

• Indonesia plans to treat 2000 victims from Gaza on an uninhabited island.
• After treatment, the patients will return to Gaza, the press secretary indicates.
• The plan has drawn criticism due to possible ties to the U.S. proposal regarding Palestinians.

Indonesia intends to convert a medical facility on its uninhabited Galang Island to treat nearly 2000 wounded residents of Gaza. This was reported by the press secretary of the president on September 7, 2025.

This Muslim-majority country earlier already sent humanitarian aid to Gaza after the onset of Israel's offensive in July 2023, as a result of which, according to medical services in Gaza, over 60,000 Palestinians were killed.

Press secretary Hasan Nasbi noted that Indonesia will provide medical assistance to victims of the war who have received injuries or were trapped under rubble. He clarified that this is not an evacuation.

The medical facility on Galang Island, located near the Sumatra coast, will be used for treating wounded residents of Gaza and temporarily housing their relatives. Currently, there is no population on the island.

Patients will return to Gaza after recovery, Nasbi added. He did not provide specific terms or details, referring to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, which did not respond to requests for comments.

This plan emerged a few months after the proposal by President Prabowo Subianto to provide shelter to wounded Palestinians, which drew criticism from high-ranking spiritual leaders of the country due to close ties with the U.S. proposal by President Donald Trump regarding the permanent resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza.

In response to this proposal, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, which supports the resolution of two states for regulating the conflict in the Middle East, stated that "it categorically rejects any attempts at the primitive resettlement of Palestinians."

On Galang, in 2020, a hospital was opened to treat victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, and until 1996 the island was a large camp for refugees under the management of the UN, where 250,000 people lived, who fled from the war in Vietnam.

Tags: Middle East/Politics