Galloway: New Gaza convoys won't cross Egypt

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=115576§ionid=351020202



British lawmaker George Galloway says no more aid convoys destined for the besieged Gaza Strip will pass through Egyptian territory as its authorities caused troubles for Viva Palestina convoy to enter the Palestinian enclave.

"I cannot see any more visits to Egypt since we find it very difficult to deal with the officials who cheated us. They signed a binding agreement with us in Aqaba, Jordan, and they broke it," Galloway said in an interview with Press TV on Thursday.

"There are other ways into Gaza and we are exploring them. You'll see Viva Palestina coming from all corners of the world," he added.

The British anti-war activist added that the third international convoy organized by the British-based group Viva Palestina arrived in the Gaza Strip with no more than three quarters of what the organizers had planned.

It is believed that the remaining quarter of the humanitarian supplies, intended for impoverished Gazans living under crippling Israeli siege, will never reach its intended target in the Gaza Strip.

The Viva Palestina aid convoy entered Gaza Wednesday, after it received the approval of Egyptian authorities to bring into the blockaded coastal sliver of Gaza several tonnes of aid supplies. The activists of the pro-Palestinian movement had earlier entered the Egyptian port of al-Arish in order to get access into Gaza.

The third international convoy to Gaza departed from London on December 5, 2009. The convoy was made up of volunteers from Britain, Ireland, Belgium and Malaysia who had raised hundreds of thousands of pounds in their local communities to pay for ambulances, minibuses, vans and lorries. These vehicles were then filled with medical and other aid supplies desperately needed in Gaza.

The Gaza Strip has been under a complete Israeli siege, with full cooperation of Egypt, ever since the Hamas resistance movement, which does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state, won parliamentary elections in a surprise victory in 2007.

Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza in December 2008 and January 2009, which left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead, deteriorated the already dire situation there.

The Israeli assault led to the destruction of schools, mosques, houses as well as UN compounds, inflicting $1.6 billion damage on the Gazan economy.