Jakarta. Indonesia is repeating its calls for an immediate ceasefire as Israel’s war in Gaza marked its one-year anniversary on Monday.

On this day last year, Palestinian militant group Hamas launched unprecedented surprise strikes on Israel. The October 7 attack triggered a major escalation to Israeli forces’ violence in Gaza. The Palestinian death toll in Gaza had reached nearly 42,000 people, many of whom were women and children. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Pahala Mansury said that Indonesia’s staunch support for Palestine would not waver, including its calls for an end to the fighting in Gaza. He also promised Jakarta would continue to speak up against Israeli crimes at international forums. Indonesia --like many other countries-- will also keep on pushing for a two-state solution or the establishment of Palestine and Israel as two separate states that live side by side in peace.

“A year has passed since Oct. 7, 2023. Indonesia has been consistent all this time to push for an immediate ceasefire, which we consider to be the most urgent. … Not only do we make those calls in bilateral settings, but we also [urge for a ceasefire] in multilateral forums, including the International Court of Justice [ICJ],” Pahala told reporters on the sidelines of a business forum in Jakarta on Monday.

“Of course, we will continue to push for a two-state solution, but one of the things that we consider most urgent is to have that immediate ceasefire,” Pahala said.

Since the heightened Gaza war began last October, Palestine has taken the center stage in Indonesia’s foreign diplomacy. Jokowi often brought up the need to bring peace to Gaza in his bilateral talks with other global leaders. Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi had toured from one country to the other to gain support for Palestine. She also urged Israeli forces to withdraw from Palestinian territories when speaking at the UN’s judicial organ ICJ earlier this year. Most recently, Retno took a jab at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s UN speech, saying that Indonesia did not buy his claims that Israel had been seeking peace.

A wider war in the Middle East is also looming a year into the Gaza conflict. Israel fired airstrikes on Beirut that killed Hassan Nasrallah, a secretary-general of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, late last month. Iran then launched missiles at Israel not long after. Netanyahu vowed to make Iran pay for what he called a “big mistake”.

“We [Indonesia] are aware of the current situation, and it is important to cool down this tension. We will continue to communicate … with not just the warring groups, but also other parties,” Pahala told the press.

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