Indonesia’s Baznas sends 4,520 food packages to Palestinians in Gaza

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Jakarta (ANTARA) – Indonesia’s National Alms Agency (Baznas) reaffirmed its commitment to providing humanitarian assistance to Palestinians by dispatching 4,520 food packages in five trucks from Ismailia, Egypt, on Thursday (October 29).

“We are sending around 25 types of food commodities tailored to the recipients’ tastes,” Baznas Head Sodik Mudjahid said in a statement received in Jakarta on Friday.

He said the food supplies had been collected through donations from Indonesians to help meet the basic needs of Palestinians amid the prolonged humanitarian crisis.

According to Mudjahid, the five truckloads of aid contain various food items, including pasta, dates, cheese, tea, sugar, flour, beans, nuts, cooking oil, and yeast.

Students at Al-Azhar University who received Baznas scholarships also helped pack the food supplies before they were shipped, he added.

Mudjahid emphasized that Baznas would closely monitor the delivery process to ensure that the aid reaches its intended recipients.

The five trucks departed from a warehouse operated by Türkiye-based International Organization for Human Development (4TDK) in Ismailia, in coordination with the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC).

He said the food packages would first be transported to an ERC logistics facility in Al-Arish to receive the barcodes required for crossing the border.

The aid would then be transported to Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, he added.

Mudjahid also thanked Indonesians for entrusting their donations to Baznas and encouraged the public to continue demonstrating solidarity with and supporting the Palestinian people.

Idy Muzayyad, a Baznas executive overseeing distribution, utilization, and empowerment, said the food aid was expected to arrive in Gaza within a week.

“We came here in person to help ensure that the assistance reaches the intended people in Gaza,” he said.

Mudjahid and Muzayyad symbolically handed over the humanitarian aid to Palestinian refugees in Ismailia on Thursday (October 29).

Since 2023, Baznas has distributed more than Rp162 billion (nearly US$9 million) in humanitarian assistance to 878,461 people in Palestine.

The assistance has included food supplies, ambulances, tents for homes, schools, and mosques, as well as toilets, clean water, blankets, medicines, and scholarships.