CAIRO: Over 100 activists affiliated with the “Asia to Gaza” aid convoy crossed to Gaza through the Rafah border in the early hours of Monday. The boat carrying the aid is still waiting for permission to dock at Al-Arish port.
An Egyptian security official told AFP that around 20 Iranians and some, though not all, of the Jordanians traveling with the convoy had been denied visas to enter Egypt.
The aid convoy, dubbed Asia 1, left India at the beginning of December and had planned to arrive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip by Dec. 27, the second anniversary of Israel’s "Operation Cast Lead" offensive on Gaza.
The boat is carrying $1 million (€760,000) worth of medicine, foodstuffs and toys as well as four buses and 10 power generators for hospitals, Palestinian officials have said.
Starting in India, the convoy passed through 18 Asian cities along the way — including in Pakistan, Iran and Turkey.
The Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan was organized by the Asian People’s Solidarity for Palestine — an alliance of Asian human rights organizations, social movements, trade unions and civil society institutions.
“[The Palestinian] struggle is broad-based, varied and multi-dimensional,” the Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan’s official website stated. “It is humanitarian and for peace, freedom and human dignity. It is against occupation, imperialism, apartheid, Zionism, and all forms of discrimination — including religious discrimination.”
The convoy was organized in part by the Turkish Foundation of Humanitarian Relief (IHH), which put together a previous ill-fated attempt to break the Israeli embargo on Gaza with a naval aid convoy in May 2010.
Nine activists died in May when Israeli forces raided the boat in international waters.
– Additional reporting by AFP
