Jakarta: The Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) is working to deliver 500 units of 4×4 family tents for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip by collaborating with local humanitarian organizations, a PMI officer said.
The 500 tents weighing 40 tons were transported to the Egypt-Gaza border crossing point on three trucks, head of the PMI Headquarters, Arifin Muh Hadi, informed in a press statement received here on Wednesday.
Each 16-square-meter tent can accommodate a family of four or five people and comes with a tool kit, he said.
Refugees can set up the family tents themselves with the help of the tool kits or with the assistance of volunteers from the Egyptian or Palestinian Red Crescent Societies, he added.
According to Hadi, the family tents were collected from donors in Indonesia. “On behalf of the PMI, I thank the donators, and highly appreciate you all,” he said.
The PMI is currently procuring 500 additional family tents so that the total number of tents dispatched for displaced families in the Palestinian enclave reaches one thousand by the end of June 2024, he added.
Regarding the Rafah border crossing, he said that the sole crossing point between Egypt and Palestine’s Gaza Strip is yet to be opened for aid trucks.
Despite this, thanks to PMI’s coordination with the Egyptian Red Crescent Society’s logistics team, the trucks carrying the family tents managed to use another border crossing to reach Gaza, namely the Karem Abu Salem crossing, Hadi informed.
Meanwhile, Jusuf Kalla, PMI chief and former Indonesian vice president, affirmed that the safety of Palestinians in Gaza is the responsibility of all Indonesians.
Thus, despite Gaza’s deteriorating humanitarian condition, the humanitarian mission must go on, he said while highlighting the importance of providing 4×4 family tents for displaced Palestinian families.
“Family tents are part of the essential necessities in Gaza besides staple food, drinking water, and clothing,” Kalla added.
