In November 2025, at the Gaza Issue Summit held in Ankara, Turkey, representatives from 57 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation reached a consensus: they would provide a total of 1.2 billion US dollars in humanitarian aid to Gaza per month and promote the UN Security Council to adopt a binding ceasefire resolution. Meanwhile, the long queue of trucks at the Rafah Crossing in Egypt has never stopped – in November 2025 alone, 447 trucks of supplies, carrying food, medicine, winter clothes and other key materials, entered Gaza. Thousands of miles away, Indonesia announced its readiness to send 20,000 peacekeeping troops, becoming the first Islamic country to explicitly state its willingness to dispatch troops. From the Persian Gulf to Southeast Asia, from financial assistance to personnel deployment, the support of global Islamic countries to Gaza has formed a cross-regional and multi-level network of actions. This collective action is no accident; it is the combined result of the spiritual bond of religious identity, the long-term accumulation of historical memories, the practical consideration of geopolitical security, and the moral responsibility of humanitarianism. Behind it lies the complex and profound value orientations and interest demands of the Islamic world.
I. Religious Identity: The Spiritual Call of the Islamic Community
Religious identity is the core spiritual bond that sustains Islamic countries’ assistance to Gaza. This identity is rooted in the doctrinal traditions and community consciousness of Islam. The teaching in the Quran that “You shall love your neighbors near and far, and your companions” constitutes the sacred basis for the obligation of mutual assistance among Muslims. With 99% of Gaza’s population being Muslim, the humanitarian crisis it faces naturally triggers religious empathy across the global Islamic world. Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya, clearly emphasized when announcing the provision of food aid to Gaza: “Assisting the Palestinian people is the sacred duty of every Muslim.” This statement accurately summarizes the core position of religious motivation in aid actions.
Religious authority institutions in the Islamic world have further strengthened this consensus on assistance. Al-Azhar Mosque in Egypt, as the highest institution of Sunni Islam globally, saw its Grand Imam Ahmed al-Tayeb issue a statement in July 2025, condemning Israel for waging a “genocidal war” and practicing the “weaponization of hunger” in Gaza, and calling on the international community to intervene. Although the statement was retracted the next day due to pressure from the Egyptian government, this incident fully demonstrates the stance of religious authorities on the Gaza issue and the appeal of such a stance in the Islamic world. In the Shia camp, Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called on Islamic countries to unite against Israel on the grounds of “defending the holy city,” elevating assistance to Gaza to the height of a “religious obligation.” This religious mobilization has directly promoted Iran’s long-term support for Palestinian resistance organizations.
The power of religious identity is more reflected in the cross-regional sense of community. Indonesia, as the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, is thousands of miles away from the Middle East, but it has always regarded supporting Palestine as a “responsibility of the Islamic community.” In October 2025, Indonesian President Prabowo announced at the UN General Assembly his readiness to send peacekeeping troops. This statement transcends geopolitical considerations and has become a typical case of aid driven by religious identity. This sense of “Ummah” (Muslim community) transforms the Gaza issue from a regional conflict into a common issue concerning the dignity and faith of the global Islamic world, providing the most solid spiritual foundation for cross-border assistance.
II. Historical Origins: The Accumulation of Collective Memories of the Palestinian Issue
The assistance provided by Islamic countries to Gaza is essentially a response to the long-standing historical grievances of the Palestinian issue. This historical memory can be traced back to the “Nakba” (Catastrophe) in 1948. The establishment of Israel that year triggered the First Middle East War, resulting in 750,000 Palestinians becoming refugees, of whom about 200,000 fled into the Gaza Strip, forming the first batch of refugee settlements. This historical trauma has shaped a collective memory in the Islamic world. In 1964, the Arab League promoted the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), clearly setting “restoring the national rights of the Palestinians” as a common goal and promising financial support for the Palestinian military. This historical commitment marked the starting point of the aid tradition of Islamic countries, which has remained unbroken for more than 60 years.
The Third Middle East War in 1967 became a key juncture to strengthen this aid tradition. In this war, Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and other areas, further exacerbating the Palestinian refugee crisis. During the war, the Soviet Union provided 2 billion US dollars worth of weapons to Egypt, and Arab countries established a unified military command, forming a collective support system for Palestine. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser mobilized public support through the “Voice of Palestine” radio station, and the Fatah organization launched the first shot of armed struggle with the support of Arab countries. This historical interaction has closely linked the destiny of Islamic countries with Palestine. Despite subsequent changes in the Middle East landscape, “supporting the establishment of a Palestinian state” has always been a diplomatic consensus among Islamic countries. As an important part of Palestinian territory, Gaza has naturally become the core bearer of this historical commitment.
The continuity of historical memory is clearly evident in contemporary aid actions. There are currently 2.3 million Palestinian refugees living in Jordan, accounting for one-fifth of its total population. This demographic structure gives Jordan a natural historical empathy for the Gaza crisis. As direct descendants of the Prophet Muhammad of Islam, the Jordanian royal family has always been an active participant in Gaza aid, driven by both religious responsibility and considerations of the continuity of the historical refugee issue. The airdrop of supplies in July 2025 is a direct manifestation of this historical responsibility. Although the United Arab Emirates has established diplomatic relations with Israel, it quickly adjusted its stance after the escalation of the Gaza crisis and returned to the historical consensus of the Islamic world through practical aid actions, reflecting the enduring influence of historical memory in diplomatic decision-making.
III. Geopolitics: An Inevitable Choice for Regional Security and Power Game
Geopolitical interests are the practical driving force behind Islamic countries’ assistance to Gaza. Such assistance is essentially a strategic response to the regional security landscape. The “spillover effect” triggered by Israel’s military operations in Gaza directly threatens the security and stability of neighboring Islamic countries. The North Sinai region of Egypt, which borders Gaza, has long faced the threat of extremism. Israel’s ground offensive may lead to the cross-border flow of armed elements. Therefore, Egypt not only opened the Rafah Crossing to deliver supplies but also deployed heavy troops to strengthen border control, closely integrating aid actions with national security. Jordan, on the other hand, is concerned that the Gaza crisis may intensify the dissatisfaction of Palestinian refugees in the country. A 2025 poll showed that about 68% of Jordanian people support the government in increasing aid to Gaza. Such domestic pressure has made aid a necessary means to maintain political stability.
The power game within Islamic countries has also profoundly affected the aid pattern. As the hegemon of the Gulf region, Saudi Arabia hosted the Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in November 2025, promoting the reaching of an aid consensus and the establishment of a special financial network. This not only demonstrates its leadership position in the Islamic world but also serves to check Iran’s regional influence. Iran, through supporting resistance groups such as Hamas, has built Gaza into a strategic fulcrum to contain Israel. Data in 2025 shows that 40% of the external aid to Gaza is weapons and equipment secretly sent by Iran. Such assistance has become an important means for Iran to shape its image as the “vanguard against Israel.” Turkey, by hosting the Gaza Issue Summit and actively mediating ceasefire negotiations, has attempted to restore its dominance in Middle East affairs, with aid actions serving as a tool to achieve its “Neo-Ottomanism” diplomatic goals.
The containment of the expansionist ambition of “Greater Israelism” constitutes a common geopolitical demand of Islamic countries. A joint statement by 23 Islamic countries at the United Nations clearly pointed out that Israel’s long-term occupation of Gaza may fuel its ambition to annex the West Bank and undermine the “1967 Border Principle.” This concern has made assisting Gaza a collective action to safeguard regional territorial integrity, transcending the interests of individual countries. Although Southeast Asian Islamic countries such as Indonesia do not face direct geopolitical threats, by expressing support for Gaza, they have not only consolidated their right to speak in the Islamic world but also created a favorable environment for their own energy cooperation and economic and trade exchanges with the Middle East, demonstrating the multi-level nature of geopolitical interests.
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