Just a few hours ago approximately 2,000 Egyptian riot policemen attacked and injured volunteers of the Viva Palestina aid convoy that were inside the port of Al Arish preparing to drive the convoy vehicles to Gaza to deliver medical supplies and other humanitarian supplies.
Reports through Twitter from convoy participants say that there were serious injuries to some of the volunteers who suffered blows to the head by baton wielding policemen. Some were taken out of the port compound in stretchers and many of the victims are being attended at a mosque at the port. There are reports that some of the Viva Palestina volunteers are missing.
One convoy member reported, "Tear gas, water cannons, rock throwing, they are under full attack… whole thing happened when convoy members were still locked inside this gated compound, then suddenly a very large group of plain clothes 'people' arrived at the compound with sticks and stones… 20 members were injured in the attack and there are some people from the convoy who are missing and cannot be found."
Another convoy member stated, "I was coming back from dinner with 8 brothers and sisters. . . approximately 30 riot police approached us & started harassing pushing and hitting us. the situation escalated. We tried to lock arms and hold each other and get to the gate. There were too many of them. Two meters from the gate they separated us and beat the shit out of us. I got dragged under and into a group of the riot police and was being beaten. Managed to get to the wall. as I was being beaten one of the brothers grabbed me from across the wall and put me into the compound. Of the nine of us, four are missing. I don't know what has happened to them."
Over 520 volunteers and 220 vehicles loaded with humanitarian aid have faced one obstacle after another, as the Egyptian government re-routed the convoy hundreds of miles from their original route through Aqaba, Jordan. When they finally arrived in Al-Arish, Egypt, almost a week behind their schedule, the Egyptian government broke its prior promises to the convoy's leaders, saying that one quarter of the 220 vehicles would have to be re-routed yet again, this time through Israel. This would have surely resulted in the Zionists stealing the valuable vehicles and medicines.
This aid convoy that came under attack is the third Viva Palestina humanitarian effort organized and led by Member of the British Parliament George Galloway. A fourth convoy called the Hugo Chavez Viva Palestina Aid Convoy is planned from Venezuela around September of this year.
