Egypt allows Libyan aid into Gaza Strip
AFP
EL-ARISH- Egypt allowed 200 tonnes of medical aid unloaded from a Libyan ship into the blockaded Palestinian Gaza Strip enclave, an official said on Wednesday.
A further nine trucks loaded with foodstuffs brought by the aid ship, the Jerusalem 5, will be sent to Gaza through an Israeli crossing with Egypt, said North Sinai governor's assistant Osama el-Sirgani.
An organiser said the ship carried about 1,000 tonnes of aid for the Gaza Strip, which Israel blockaded in 2007 after the Islamist Hamas group took it over.
Israel relaxed the blockade weeks after a botched commando raid on an aid flotilla in May left nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists dead.
Egypt responded to that incident by indefinitely opening its Rafah border crossing, the only passage to Gaza not controlled by Israel.
A ship sponsored by a charity group run by the Libyan leader's son Seif al-Islam Kadhafi was diverted to Egypt earlier this month by Israel's navy.
Kadhafi told an Arab newspaper at that time that Israel would allow reconstruction material sent by Libya into Gaza, which was devastated during a three week war in December 2008.
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