February 21, 2026 | 01:08 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono stated that Indonesian forces will not disarm combatants in the Gaza Strip. Indonesia refuses to demilitarize the Palestinian territory, despite that being one of the missions of the International Stabilization Force (ISF).
"We have conveyed to the ISF about our national caveat, that we do not engage in military operations," Sugiono said in a virtual press release on Saturday, February 21, 2026.
He asserted that the mission of Indonesian forces in the Gaza Strip is to protect the civilian population. "We do not do disarmament [of combatants], nor do we engage in what is termed demilitarization," said the Secretary General of the Gerindra Party.
The Indonesian military will also not be involved in offensive combat operations. Indonesian forces are only permitted to take defensive action to protect themselves in the face of direct threats.
According to him, Indonesia's involvement in the mission is not related to diplomatic relations with specific countries. The ISF, he said, is an international mandate to maintain peace and protect civilian populations.
President Prabowo Subianto has expressed a commitment to send 8,000 Indonesian soldiers to the Gaza Strip as part of the ISF. This figure is estimated to be the largest contribution from a single country out of a total force of around 20,000 personnel in the ISF.
The plan to deploy ISF joint forces to the Gaza Strip was previously announced at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace. The conference took place in Washington, D.C., United States, and was attended by leaders of member countries, including Prabowo.
Nickolay Mladenov, the director general of the Board of Peace, stated that the reconstruction of Gaza depends on disarmament. "There is no other option except the full demilitarization and decommissioning of all of the weapons in Gaza for reconstruction to begin and for people to have a new way of life going forward," Mladenov said.
Hamas, an armed group in the Gaza Strip, stated that the Palestinian movement will not surrender its weapons or accept foreign intervention in Gaza. They reject the demands of the US and Israel.
"Criminalizing the resistance, its weapons, and those who carried it out is something we should not accept," said Khaled Meshaal, a senior Hamas leader, at a conference in Doha as reported by Al Arabiya on Monday, February 9, 2026.
Dewi Rina Cahyani and Sita Planasari contributed to the report
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