Egypt Bars Gaza-Bound Aid Convoys from Its Territory

Almanar

09/01/2010 Aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip will now be banned from traveling across Egypt after activists this week clashed with police, the foreign minister said in remarks published on Saturday.

Ahmed Abul Gheit told government newspaper Al-Ahram that members of one convoy led by British MP George Galloway committed "criminal" acts on Egyptian soil on their way to the blockaded Palestinian coastal enclave.

"Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory," Abul Gheit said. "Members of the (Viva Palestina) convoy committed hostile acts, even criminal ones, on Egyptian territory," the foreign minister added without elaborating.

Abul Gheit was speaking to Al-Ahram from Washington where he is on a visit to discuss the Middle East peace process. He said that, from now on aid, to Gaza must be handed over to the Red Crescent at El-Arish who will turn it over to the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim relief organization in Gaza.

The comments come a day after a foreign ministry official told Galloway he was no longer welcome in Egypt as he flew out of the country.

Later on Friday, Galloway told Sky News television he and a friend had been "bundled into a car" and given little choice but to get on a plane out of Egypt. "On the steps of the plane a representative of the foreign affairs ministry in Egypt told me that I was declared persona non grata," he said.

Egypt accused Galloway, who once called at a London rally for the overthrow of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, of trying to embarrass the country, which has refused to permanently open its Rafah border crossing with Gaza.

Mosques throughout Egypt took advantage of Friday prayers to criticize Hamas over the killing of an Egyptian soldier by a sniper during riots that erupted earlier this week along the country's border with Gaza.

London-based Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds Al-Arabi reported Saturday that most of the 140,000 mosques operating under the auspices of Egypt's Ministry of Awqaf took part in the verbal onslaught on the Palestinian Islamic resistance group.

A cleric said during a televised sermon that Egypt "has sacrificed thousands for the sake of Palestine," apparently referring to Egyptian casualties during its wars with Israel.

According to another imam, Hamas is to blame for the blockade imposed on the Palestinians in Gaza. "Its leaders want to stay in power, even at the cost of their own people's expulsion and starvation," the imam said during a sermon at Cairo's Al-Rahma Mosque. He called the Egyptian soldier a "shahid" (martyr), adding that the sniper who had killed him would be "sent to hell" if he does not repent.

Meanwhile, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the Egyptian soldier was killed by accident after he had opened fire on a group of Palestinian youngsters who were demonstrating near the border.

Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram published an editorial titled, "Killing Egyptians won't liberate Palestine", which claimed that the tension along the Egypt-Gaza border "is exactly what Israel wants."

The editorial read, "Did anyone ever imagine that Egyptian blood would be spilled by a Palestinian?

Kuwaiti columnist Fouad Al-Hashem wrote, "Hamas is under the impression that it can (hurt) Egypt and its leadership with its 3,000 fighters and the pipes it calls missiles. "Just as Egypt's fighter squadrons taught Libya's leaders a lesson in 1977 by bombing them, the gang in Gaza (Hamas) demands the same treatment," Al-Hashem wrote in an editorial published by the Al Watan daily.

On Saturday a Cairo airport security official said heated arguments erupted as authorities were attempting to send home some 500 international activists who were part of the aid convoy to Gaza.

The official said Saturday that many activists could pay for their plane tickets and the Foreign Ministry has asked their respective embassies to foot the bill.

On Tuesday night activists with the Viva Palestina convoy clashed with police in Egyptian the port town of El-Arish, 45 kilometers from the Gaza border. They had been protesting an Egyptian decision to send some of the convoy's trucks to Gaza through the Zionist entity.

Seven protesters were arrested during Tuesday's clashes, but police swapped them for four policemen held by the activists. A prosecutor in El-Arish later issued warrants for the arrest of seven activists, including two Britons and an American woman.

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