Minister : Let me start by thanking the men and women of the SAF Singapore Armed Forces who volunteered for this mission and in a very real and personal sense, represent the care, concern, and compassion of all Singaporeans for the civilians in Gaza facing a very dire humanitarian situation.
First is a big thank you, men and women of the SAF. His Majesty has been assiduous, for a very long time, in seeking peace in the Middle East. He very quickly mobilised assistance for the civilians in Gaza. Without his leadership, none of this would have happened. The other aspect is that, without the pre-existing close and strong relationship which we have between Jordan and Singapore, we would not have been able to get this done.
The origin for this was a phone call I had with the Jordanian Foreign Minister, just over two weeks ago. Here we are now, a Singaporean team about to commence this mission. The first phase was the airlift of the essential humanitarian packages.
We are now ready for the next phase. We are set for the airdrop phase of this operation. It will commence, but I hope you also understand, for both security and operational reasons, that we will not be publishing a schedule of when the flights will go.
We are set and ready to do so. I wish all this was not necessary. What we need now is an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. We need the immediate unconditional release of all hostages. If that can be achieved, then a whole flood of humanitarian assistance can reach the civilians in Gaza, and the best way of doing this would be through a ground-based route.
