Asia

Home page

Asia

International aid convoy arrives in Gaza

22 October 2010 01:58 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. An aid convoy carrying over 300 international activists crossed late Thursday into the blockaded Gaza Strip via Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, witnesses said, APA reports quoting Earth Times.

The convoy, which included 140 vehicles and over 300 campaigners, is carrying humanitarian aid worth around 5 million dollars, according to the group which organized it, Viva Palestina.

It is the fifth such convoy organized by the group. It began its journey from London on September 18, stopping at a Syrian seaport for several days before sailing to the port of al-Arish in Egypt and docking there on Wednesday.

Egypt and Israel tightened a blockade on the Gaza Strip after Hamas took control of the territory in 2007.

But after Israel killed nine members of a Turkish aid flotilla in May, Egypt lifted some of the restrictions at its Rafah border crossing, including allowing entry to pilgrims and Palestinians needing medical attention.

Israel also began allowing more goods into Gaza, including food, while maintaining an air and naval blockade on the Strip and keeping a ban on exports.

Prior to the convoy’s crossing into the Strip, Egyptian security forces said they had detained a Mauritanian member of the convoy in el-Arish and took his passport for review.

The 12 other members of the Mauritanian delegation stayed behind to wait for him.

On entering the Strip the activists began chanting slogans in support of former British parliamentarian George Galloway, who leads Viva Palestina.