KUALA LUMPUR: A bloody face-off between the Viva Palestina convoy and Egyptian riot police resulted in four activists being seriously injured and seven others, including a Malaysian student, arrested. The clash sparked riots across the Gaza border, with Palestinians throwing stones at Egyptian border guards.
One guard was killed while nine others were injured. At least 10 Palestinians were also injured.
New agencies reported that the riots broke out after Gaza’s Hamas rulers called for a protest over the clash between Egyptian police and thje aid convoy at the nearby Egyptian port city of El-Arish.
The 450-member convoy was detained for hours at l-Arish yesterday while waiting for their passports to be cleared.
The group held a three-hour protest at the port gates after being told that 59 of the convoy’s 220 vehicles would have to enter Gaza via Israel.
The demand infuriated the convoy’s leaders, as it contradicted written promises made by the Egyptian government to Viva Palestina earlier.
Convoy member Juana Jaafar, via Twitter, said the situation escalated after talks between an Egyptian negotiator and Viva Palestina leader, British left-wing politician George Galloway, broke down.
“Soonest [sic] he left, the riot police closed in on us,” she said.
In another entry, she said “all hell has broken loose at the port” after police began spraying and gassing the convoy. The 189-strong police team also threw rocks at the protestors.
Juana said events came to a head when instigators began moving in from behind police lines.
“Convoy members were sitting on the ground when shouts from police lines started and then wham, hell.”
Four members were seriously injured and had to be taken to hospital for treatment.
University of Bristol medical student Ibrahim Mohd Azmi, a Malaysian, was arrested, along with three Britons, two Americans and a Kuwaiti.
Juana said Ibrahim had only been taking pictures at the gates.
Her tweets also betrayed frustration at the actions of some of her fellow activists, who sported beards and wore army fatigues.
“What’s up with the UK jangguts (beards)? People have told you not to wear fa tigues or dress like Kandahar warriors and give the authori ties reasons to red flag you.”
A later tweet revealed that the same “jangguts” were “trying to act like heroes”.
She said some convoy mem bers were not happy about the way certain activists reacted to provocation.
“My own take is that the young jangguts among us terover emo gila (got too emotional) and I am not proud of them at all.”
When news of the clash reached Gaza later in the day, it triggered riots there as well.
About 1,000 Palestinians gathered at the Rafah border, throwing rocks at Egyptian border police, who retaliated by firing their weapons. At least two Palestinians were in jured in the incident.
Late last night, the Egyptian government told the convoy, including the Malaysian am bulance, that they would be allowed to go to Gaza, but only for a 48-hour period.
The government also freed those detained and allowed them to rejoin the convoy.
However, 59 vehicles were still denied entry into Gaza. Forty-three lorries and four- wheel-drive vehicles were bought by American activists at the request of doctors in Gaza.
They will now be taken to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria.
Viva Palestina is on a mission to send humanitarian food, medicine and school equipment worth more than US$1 million (RM3.4 million) to Palestinians in Gaza.
They began their trip in London on Dec 9 and have moved through Turkey, Syria and Jordan.
The convoy was to have arrived in Gaza on Dec 27 but was held up by the Egyptian government, which refused to allow the convoy the use of the port of Nuweiba for entry to Rafah before arriving in Gaza.
As a result, they had to return to Syria to find another way to reach Rafah to go into Gaza.
Perdana Global Peace Organisation members Juana Jaafar and Ram Kartigasu are driving an ambulance donated by the organisation to the people of Gaza.
