INT’L ORGANISATION ASKS EGYPT TO END ITS SIEGE ON GAZA

Vienna, 10 Jumadil Awwal 1435/11 March 2014 (MINA) – Friends of humanity international appealed to the Egyptian authority to end its blockade on the population in the Gaza Strip and facilitate the movement of individuals and goods at Rafah border crossing.

In a press release, the Vienna-based organization stated that the Palestinian population in Gaza has been under tight blockade long months since the military coup in Egypt and thus the current Egyptian authority has an obligation to take the humanitarian needs of the Gazans into account, Palestinian Information Center (PIC) reported as quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA).

Friends of humanity said it had sent a letter to the Egyptian leadership to denounce the blockade and urge it to open the Rafah border crossing normally before passengers and goods.

The organization also expressed its dismay at the Egyptian deportation of multinational activists and its refusal to allow them to leave Cairo airport for the Gaza Strip.

Previously, dozens of Gaza-bound female activists have protested at Cairo airport after they were barred from entering the country.

A delegation of 58 activists, mostly French, arrived in Cairo on Thursday morning from Paris and planned to travel to the blockaded Palestinian enclave through the Egyptian Rafah border crossing, Egypt’s Ahram reported. 

Egyptian authorities have previously stopped activists from entering Gaza claiming, the Rafah border crossing has been closed since last month while troops ‘destroy smuggling’ tunnels and wage an offensive against militants in the Sinai Peninsula.

Some officials say the activists could have been used to embarrass the interim Egyptian government.

Egyptian authorities are in dispute with Gaza’s ruling Hamas, which they accuse of inciting violence in the country, while  Hamas insists the party never interfered Egypt’s internal affairs.(T/P03/E01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)