Indonesia is preparing for the potential deployment of 5,000 to 8,000 troops to Gaza under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, the country’s army chief of staff, Maruli Simanjuntak, said Monday following a security meeting with Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta.
Maruli stressed that details on the force and deployment location were still being negotiated with relevant parties, but that one brigade, probably between 5,000 and 8,000 troops, was being prepared to assist Trump’s Board of Peace, in remarks cited by national news agency Antara.
The world’s most populous Muslim nation, Indonesia is among the countries with which the United States has discussed plans for an International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza.
Under Trump’s Gaza peace plan, the first stage of which was signed into force in October, the ISF is tasked with providing security in the Strip, while gradually phasing out the Israel Defense Forces, which currently remains in control of 53 percent of the enclave. Hamas, which still controls the rest of Gaza, is to disarm, though the group has so far shown no inclination to do so, which has made it difficult to find countries to volunteer for the ISF, which will be headed by US Central Command Special Operations Commander Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers.
Maruli said that initial preparations within the Indonesian army were already underway. The personnel are being prepared to function as peacekeeping forces, he added, and deployment would focus on engineering and medical units.
The proposed multinational peacekeeping force for Gaza could total about 20,000 troops, Prabowo’s spokesman said.
The spokesman said, however, that no deployment terms or areas of operation had been agreed upon.
Prabowo has been invited to Washington later this month for the first meeting of Trump’s Board of Peace. The Southeast Asian country last year committed to readying 20,000 troops for deployment for a Gaza peacekeeping force, but it has said it is awaiting more details about the force’s mandate before confirming deployment.
“The total number is approximately 20,000 (across countries) … it is not only Indonesia,” presidential spokesman Prasetyo Hadi told journalists on Tuesday, adding that the exact number of troops had not been discussed yet, but estimating Indonesia could offer up to 8,000.
“We are just preparing ourselves in case an agreement is reached and we have to send peacekeeping forces,” he said.
Prasetyo also said there would be negotiations before Indonesia paid the $1 billion being asked for permanent membership of the Board of Peace. He did not clarify whom the negotiations would be with, and said Indonesia had not yet confirmed Prabowo’s attendance at the board meeting.
Meanwhile, Indonesia’s defense ministry denied reports in Israeli media that the deployment of Indonesian troops would be in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis.
“Indonesia’s plans to contribute to peace and humanitarian support in Gaza are still in the preparation and coordination stages,” defense ministry spokesman Rico Ricardo Sirat told Reuters in a message.
“Operational matters (deployment location, number of personnel, schedule, mechanism) have not yet been finalized and will be announced once an official decision has been made and the necessary international mandate has been clarified,” he added.
The Kan public broadcaster reported Monday that several thousand Indonesian troops are expected to deploy in Gaza in the coming weeks.
The Indonesian soldiers would be the first members of the ISF to reach Gaza, though there is no set date for their arrival, it said.
Only a few countries have voiced public interest in joining the ISF. Azerbaijan, which Washington had publicly touted as a member of the force, announced last month that it would not be participating.
While the US has had trouble getting countries to commit their forces to join the ISF, a US official speaking to The Times of Israel last month downplayed the apparent recruitment woes, insisting that countries would agree to contribute troops once they realize that they will not be expected to send their soldiers into battle against Hamas, as the mandate will be more modest than Washington and Jerusalem initially envisioned.
The terror group, which vows to destroy Israel, launched a deadly cross-border onslaught into Israel from Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, amid acts of horrific brutality, and taking 251 people as hostages, triggering the Gaza war that raged for two years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump have insisted that the terror group must give up its weapons in the near future. Trump has repeatedly asserted that Hamas “promised” to lay down its arms, and has threatened the group over the issue.
