- ActivitesHuman RightsPalestine
- March 5, 2009
- 3 minutes read
Regime, Security Prevent Gaza Committee Reception of British Aid Convoy
Egyptian security forces imposed an intensified security siege at the entrance of Sallum city and prevented the convoy of the Populist Committee for Breaking the Siege on Gaza headed by Judge Mahmud El-Khodeiry from entering to receive the British convoy.
The committee’s head of the Women’s Initiative delegation Kawthar Abdel-Fattah affirmed to Ikhwanweb that while they had been negotiating with the NDP delegation about receiving the British convoy, the committee requested the NDP to join them under their umbrella which included several national forces as well as public figures.
Kawthar continued, “After they agreed and while they were waiting for the arrival of the convoy we were surprised to find a Marsa Matrouh NDP official attacking us and asking us to leave immediately and inciting against us other youth and children who started gathering stones to throw at the populist convoy and stole welcome signs and tore it up.”
“This led to an argument between MP Hamdy Hasan and Judge Mahmud El-Khodeiry with the NDP representative. Then, the committee decided to withdraw to protect the lives of the public figures accompanying them and especially elderly people such as Judge El-Khodeiry,” Kawthar added.
“So we actually left and after moving 200 meters away from the site of the incident our car stopped to change its direction and we were surprised to find a car following us. So a delegation of MPs went down to negotiate with those in the car and discovered that they had been two NDP members who had been following their car to ensure that it had exited Sallum. As they negotiated, members of the populist committee saw a microbus stopping and groups of children coming out of it holding stones to throw at the committee members who, in turn, decided to retreat and completely withdraw from Sallum in order to preserve Egypt’s image as the British convoy passes.”
Kawthar described the NDP’s exclusivity in receiving the British delegation an attempt to beautify the image of the Egyptian government which had been tarnished by its stance towards Gaza during the last war.
It is worth mentioning that the British aid convoy consisting of 120 trucks loaded with more than a million sterling pounds worth of humanitarian aid had set out from London on February 14.