Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Egyptian police clash with Gaza aid convoy


Activists and officers injured after some of the 198 trucks led by British MP George Galloway are stopped from crossing into strip

Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 6 January 2010

"Egyptian security forces clashed today with a pro-Palestinian convoy led by the British MP George Galloway as it tried to deliver aid supplies into the Gaza Strip.

The convoy of 198 trucks and more than 500 supporters left London a month ago hoping to enter Gaza despite the Israeli economic blockade. The trucks are now at el-Arish, an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean, a few miles south of Gaza....

Egypt, too, has kept its one border crossing with Gaza, at Rafah, largely closed. Egyptian officials told the convoy some of their trucks could not pass through Rafah, but had to enter into southern Israel and then pass through an Israeli-controlled crossing into Gaza. There was no guarantee that the trucks would be allowed to enter the strip.

Galloway said that was unacceptable. "We refused this," he said. "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza. Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza."....."

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