Egypt bars Jordanian activists from reaching Gaza



AMMAN- A group of Jordanian trade unionists who tried to get into the blockaded Gaza Strip returned home on Tuesday after Egypt denied them entry through the Rafah crossing.
"We decided to go back to Jordan after Egypt refused to give us permission," Ahmad Armuti, head of the delegation and president of the trade unions' council, told AFP.



A Palestinian worker checks a truck carrying supplies after its arrival in Rafah town.
A Palestinian worker checks a truck carrying supplies after its arrival in Rafah town.
"We contacted Egyptian authorities several times but we failed to get the reasons behind their decision."
Earlier Alaa Borqan, who is in charge of public relations at the Islamist-dominated trade unions, said the 12-member group including journalists left for Rafah on Saturday.
They were carrying "nothing but solidarity for the people of Gaza," he said, adding the unions had sent a letter to Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urging him to allow the delegation into the enclave.
Borqan said Egypt granted entry to a Lebanese delegation on Monday "and we have information that a Malaysian group will enter the Strip today."
However, the Egyptian authorities justified their refusal to allow the group into Gaza by the fact that it had failed to give prior notice of its arrival.
"The entry of the delegations and of aid is not permitted without advance coordination with the Egyptian authorities," a security official told AFP.
The security services "were surprised to see the (Jordanian) delegation arrive at the crossing without prior agreement," he added, confirming that a Lebanese group had entered Gaza after receiving the green light from Egypt.
Jordan's Islamic Action Front, the main opposition party, urged Egypt in an online statement to "help all those who want to ease the sufferings of Palestinians in Gaza."
The impoverished Palestinian territory of 1.5 million people has been under a crippling blockade since militants captured an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in 2006.
Israel tightened its grip after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza the following year.
The Rafah border is Gaza's only crossing that bypasses Israel.
Egypt, which is building an underground steel barrier to stop the smuggling of goods and weapons into Gaza via a network of underground tunnels, had kept Rafah largely closed, opening it for humanitarian cases on two days a week.
But earlier this month Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the border after a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
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Tuesday, June 29th 2010
AFP
           


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