Jakarta. An Indonesian family who could not leave Gaza due to administrative troubles can finally breathe easily again as they had already fled the war-torn territory.

The once-trapped family -- comprising an Indonesian man called Muhammad Husein, his Palestinian wife, and two children -- are now in Egypt. The Indonesian government over the past weeks has been trying to get the Husein family’s names on the evacuation list of people permitted to pass through the Rafah border crossing.

"It took quite some time to evacuate them. Their names were not on the list and we had to try to get their names on the list. This process took a really long time," Foreign Affairs Minister Retno said in a recorded statement on Sunday evening.

"Once they were on the list, we still could not evacuate [Husein's family] because the borders were shut due to a number of reasons on the ground," Retno said.

During the time of the recording, Retno said that Husein’s family was en route to Cairo before they could finally head back to Indonesia.

Jakarta earlier this month already evacuated another family. The head of the family was an Indonesian man called Abdillah Onim who married a Palestinian woman and had three children. 

Indonesia has three of its citizens currently volunteering for the humanitarian organization Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MER-C). All three volunteers chose to remain at the Indonesian hospital in Gaza.

"We are always in touch with the three Indonesians as well as the MER-C representatives in Jakarta to make sure they are alright," Retno said.

Retno is on her way to Washington DC to accompany President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on his bilateral visit. Jokowi will have some talks over the Gaza situation with his American counterpart Joe Biden.

Read More: What Israel is Doing is Not Self-Defense: Jokowi

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