US thanks Indonesia’s incoming leader for Gaza aid
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has thanked Prabowo Subianto for offering assistance to Palestinians in Gaza during their meeting at an aid conference in Jordan.
The president-elect of the world’s largest Muslim-majority country pledged to send peacekeeping forces if a UN-backed ceasefire is in place and to increase medical aid immediately.
Addressing the conference on the Dead Sea, Prabowo said Indonesia was ready to send medical teams, a field hospital and a hospital ship to war-battered Gaza.
He also said Indonesia would evacuate 1,000 people for medical treatment in the Southeast Asian country, as well as children who have lost their parents or suffered other trauma, and help them return to Gaza after the war is over.
While the United States had previously denied Prabowo a visa over alleged involvement in the abduction of democracy activists at the end of Suharto’s dictatorship, US President Joe Biden’s administration has signalled a change in approach by personally congratulating Prabowo.
Australian billionaire proposes building new aid system for Gaza
An Australian billionaire is offering to build a secure gate system on the Israel-Gaza border that he says could allow 10,000 metric tons of food aid to be delivered each day to starving Palestinians.
Andrew Forrest, founder of the philanthropic Minderoo Foundation, was set to raise the proposal Tuesday at an emergency summit on Gaza in Jordan, co-hosted by that country, Egypt and the United Nations, and attended by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
He’s also committed $5 million to improve the Jordanian humanitarian land corridor by building storage warehouses to allow more aid to pass to Gaza.
“Right now, the Jordanian people are bearing a significant load by leading the single most effective route into Gaza. It is my intention to lighten their load,” Forrest, a mining magnate and avowed eco-warrior, said in a statement.
According to a video presentation on its website, Minderoo said the more ambitious plan, to build SafeGates at three points along the Israel-Gaza border, could be up and running in three weeks, if Israel gives the green light.
In a separate statement, Forrest said the project had been devised in consultation with Israel and Palestinian communities for the past two months. CNN has asked Israel for comment on the plan.
