Egyptian police has blocked the relief convoy that left Cairo Wednesday morning with humanitarian and medical aid to the Gaza Strip, and assaulted two of the convoy activists, Ikhwanweb reporter said. Opposition leaders who went with the convoy have expressed their concern to Ikhwanweb that the convoy will return to Cairo after having no other option. 

The convoy is part of a national campaign to break the siege on Gaza with the collaboration of a variety of national Egyptian trends, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Moreover, the doctors syndicate, from where the campaign was launched, is currently besieged by a heavy security blockade in what appears to be an intention by the government to crackdown on the campaign. 

The convoy (the first of two) consists of four buses, and was organized by the Labor Party  and the National Committee for Breaking Gaza Siege. It was stopped by security personnel on the entrance of the Suez Canal governorate of Al Ismailiyya.

Kefaya leader Dr. Yahia Gazzaz told Ikhwanweb that the convoy now has no other option but to return. The buses are heavily besieged by police, he said.

“Instead of assuming its duty in protecting citizens, Egyptian police has violently crackdown on our convoy, preventing our passengers from moving freely inside their homeland, and blocking any attempt to offer humanitarian and emotional aid to Gaza residents,” Gazzaz told Ikhwanweb.

Gazzaz also confirmed that police has assaulted two persons in the convoy and hit them violently without any obvious reason.

“This is absolutely a regime security apparatus, not a state security apparatus,” he said mockingly.

“The vehicles moved at 8.00 am, but we were stopped by heavy security blockade after we arrived at the entrance gate of Al Ismailiyya,” opposition leader Magdy Qorqor said in a phone call to the MB website.

“Police took the driving licenses of the drivers of the four buses and refused to return them, and then they gave us only three in an attempt to further delay our mission.”

Qorqor added that police officers asked them to submit a detailed list of the people on board, but he refused to do so, and the youth participating in the campaign went out of the buses and held a demonstration in protest.

Qorqor affirmed that the convoy does not intend to carry out any sort of violent protest.

(IkhwanWeb – Egypt)

Read More »Egypt security cracks down on relief convoy heading to Gaza cordons doctors syndicate

By Reuters

Egyptian police stopped a convoy of buses heading towards Gaza on Wednesday in what the organisers called an attempt to break the blockade of the Palestinian territory, police and eyewitnesses said.

The convoy of four buses, the first of several convoys which planned to travel to Gaza on Wednesday, could not travel beyond a toll station near the Suez Canal town of Ismailia, they said.

"Before Ismailia the security forces closed the road and took away the driving licences of the drivers," said Badr Mohamed, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the opposition groups taking part in the endeavour.

More than 150 people were standing around by the side of the road, chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians, he added.

A second convoy of about the same size will try to leave towards Gaza later in the day, he said.

Police tightened up procedures all along the main road to the border town of Rafah, checking the identity of travellers and asking them the reason for their journey, one activist said.

The Egyptian government contributes to the blockade of Gaza by refusing to open the Rafah crossing point without Israeli approval, as it agreed in a 2005 deal with Israel.

Along with many opposition groups, the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition force in the country, favors ending the blockade and opening the border for goods and people.

In August two boats carrying foreign peace activists reached Gaza from Cyprus
in defiance of the government’s wishes.

(h a a r e t z . c o m)

Read More »Egyptian police stop convoy of buses heading to Gaza