Egyptian security forces block solidarity caravan, arrest activists at Rafah

[ 06/10/2008 - 08:15 PM ]

AL-AREESH, (PIC)--

The Egyptian security forces stationed at the Rafah crossing point have arrested a number of Egyptian activists and party leaders after they attempted to break the economic siege on Gaza Strip Monday, local press sources confirmed.

According to the sources, the secretary-general of the "suspended" Egyptian Labor Party Majdi Hussein and 17 other sypathysers with the besieged Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip were rounded up and taken by the Egyptian security elements to an undisclosed place.

Hussein and his comrades attacked the Egyptian authorities for "betraying" the 1.5 million Palestinians who were locked up in the tiny Strip, and urged the Egyptian government to immediately open the vital crossing point, the sources added.

Hussein, the sources pointed out, had secretly drove to Rafah , and surprised the Egyptian security guards when he arrived to the Salah Al-Dien Gate that separates the tiny Strip from Egypt.

In Cairo, the Egyptian authorities dispatched big numbers of policemen backed by Special Forces and central security forces with the aim to abort the scheduled departure of hundreds of cars and buses loaded with human rights activists and anti-siege protestors.

The Cairo-based anti-siege committee planned to mobilize 20 buses accompanied by hundreds of cars with the aim to break the economic blockade on Gaza after its first attempt nearly one month ago was spoiled also by the Egyptian authorities.

A number of high-ranking officials in the Egyptian Labor Party, including president of the party Mahfouth Azzam, assistant secretary-general Majdi Karkar, and Mohammed Al-Sakhawi, the chairman of the committee, among other activists were arrested in front of the headquarters of the Egyptian journalists' syndicate, which was the gathering point of the Caravan.

The whereabouts of the three officials were still unknown as the Egyptian security departments refused to comment on the arrests.

Organizers of the Caravan have underlined on Sunday that they were doing nothing against the law, and that the caravan was in line with the general orientation of the government that claimed it won't allow starving of the Palestinian people.