More alerts from the Viva PalestinaConvoy. Please keep up the pressure on the Egyptian authorities. See Egyptian Embassy and Consul contact details at end of this post.
To all friends of Palestine
Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish.
This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza.
He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port.
We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid.
The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point.
We are now calling upon all friends of palestine to mount protests in person where possible, but by any means available to Egyptian representatives, consulates and Embassy's and demand that the convoy are allowed a safe passage into Gaza tomorrow!
RELATIVES OF CONVOY VOLUNTEERS CALL FCO NOW! 020 7008 1500
FCO’s EGYPT DESK: 020 7008 0183 UK Consulate in Cairo00 20 2279 16000
Viva Palestina Convoy Press TV Jan 5 Report from El-Arish #3
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Viva Palestina Convoy After Attack in El-Arish #1
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Viva Palestina Convoy After Attack in El-Arish #2
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Viva Palestina Convoy After Attack in El-Arish #3
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Gaza aid Brits 'beaten by police'. 6th Jan 2010
(UKPA) – 49 minutes ago
British members of a humanitarian convoy trying to take aid to Gaza were among dozens of people injured during clashes with Egyptian police.
Around 520 people were travelling with the 150 trucks full of supplies when clashes broke out Tuesday night at the port city of El Arish, near Gaza.
One of the members, Alexandra Lort-Phillips, 37, who works for Enfield Youth Offending Service in north London, said: "I have 42 people in my team, and out of those three Britons have been injured. There are head injuries, cuts.
"We started getting pelted with stones by people in plain clothes, then the police started moving in, using tear gas and batons. People were quite severely beaten."
She said seven or eight of the convoy members had to be treated in hospital, and blamed "heavy-handed" policing of their group.
Protests reportedly broke out when Egyptian authorities at El Arish ordered some lorries to use an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.
The activists would prefer the goods to be transported via Egypt's Rafah crossing.
British MP George Galloway, leading the convoy, said Israel is likely to prevent it entering Gaza.
He told Sky News: "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza."
Earlier this week convoy members staged noisy protests after Egyptian officials took away their passports and there was a lengthy delay in giving them back.
Controversial MP George Galloway has been involved in scuffles with Egyptian police as a group of pro-Palestinian activists tried to get a relief convoy into the Gaza Strip.
According to medics 55 people were injured after the 520 activists broke down the gate at the port in El-Arish to protest against an Egyptian decision to ship some of the goods through Israel.
They blocked the two entrances to the Sinai port with vehicles and clashed with police who used water cannon to control the protests.
A statement by one of the convoy leaders, Kevin Ovenden, on the Viva Palestina website said that their situation was at "crisis point", after rioting broke out in the port.
Mr Galloway said: "Together with myself and other leaders of the convoy we were in negotiations with the Egyptian authorities about their determination to remove more than 55 of our vehicles and send them to the Israeli checkpoint.
"We refused this because it is a breach of the agreement we reached in Akabar between the government of Egypt and the Turkish side and it completely unconsciounable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza.
"Because nothing that ever goes to Israel, ever arrives in Gaza."
The protests were sparked by an Egyptian decision to allow 139 vehicles to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing, about 30 miles from El-Arish, but requiring a remaining 59 vehicles to pass via Israel.
Talks in which Mr Galloway and a delegation of Turkish MPs sought to change the Egyptian's minds proved unsuccessful.
The convoy of nearly 200 vehicles arrived in the Mediterranean town on Monday after a dispute with Cairo on the route.
--------------------- Alice Howard Viva Palestina UK - Administration Manager Tel: 07944 512 469 Email: alice@vivapalestina.org Website: http://www.vivapalestina.org/
The months long British news black of the Viva Palestina convoy out has finally ended. See this BBC report reproduced bellow and also this report in the Independent.
Egypt police clash with Gaza aid convoy activists
04:25 GMT, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
More than 50 people have been hurt in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists seeking to take a convoy of supplies to Gaza.
Protests reportedly broke out when Egyptian authorities at the port city of Al Arish ordered some lorries to go via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint.
British MP George Galloway, leading the convoy, told Reuters that Israel was likely to prevent them entering Gaza.
The activists want all the goods to be sent via Egypt's Rafah crossing.
Some 520 people are travelling with the convoy. Reports suggest about 40 of them and 15 Egyptian police were injured in the clashes.
Reuters news agency quoted a security source saying that the police had used water cannon to force the activists to leave Al Arish harbour after they had occupied it in protest.
Mr Galloway, the sole MP for the Respect party in the British parliament, told Reuters: "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza."
Gaza is under a tight Israeli and Egyptian blockade, tightened since Hamas took over the strip in 2007.
The clashes follow an earlier row with the Egyptian authorities over what route the convoy should take to reach Egypt in the first place.
The convoy of nearly 200 trucks is carrying food and other relief supplies for Palestinians in Gaza.
E-mail embassy@egyptembdc.org, call 202-895-5400 and fax 202-244-4319 to reach the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and demand that Egypt allow for the safe and speedy passage of the Viva Palestina convoy.
Urgent Action 
