Asian aid convoy reaches Gaza Strip

Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan (file photo)

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/158381.html

An aid convoy carrying food and medical supplies for the besieged Palestinians, as part of an Asian aid mission, has arrived in the Gaza Strip.

The Asia to Gaza Solidarity Caravan, (Asia 1) entered the coastal strip through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Monday.

Some 105 human rights activists gathered at the crossing. Most of them flew to Egypt from Syria. And eight activists arrived at the Egyptian port of El Arish onboard a ship.

Egyptian authorities had prevented Iranian activists with the convoy from entering Egypt.

The convoy had travelled 7,000 kilometers, but was stuck in Latikia, in the northwest of Syria, for more than a week awaiting Egypt's permission.

The aid convoy started its journey in the Indian capital, New Delhi. It had passed through Iran, Turkey, Lebanon and Syria to reach Egypt and finally the Gaza Strip.

The activists say they want to display solidarity with the Palestinian people in their resistance against Israel.

Tel Aviv has been enforcing an all-out land, aerial and naval blockade on the 1.5 million Palestinians in the enclave since mid-June 2007.

The embargo persists while Gaza is far from recovering from the December 2008-January 2009 Israeli war that claimed the lives of over 1,400 Palestinians, inflicting a damage of above $1.6 billion on the enclave's economy.