Report by the Anti-imperialist Camp's delegation
Rafah, May 24, late night
For 10 days we have been waiting in Egypt to get into Gaza with the caravan "Hope" initiated by the "European Campaign to end the siege on Gaza". The caravan is composed of 120 people from a dozen European countries and about 40 vehicles (ambulances and trucks packed with medical goods).
It has been planned to take over the vehicles coming from Genoa by ship in Alexandria. But the Egyptian authorities imposed a change of programme claiming "security reasons". We had to go to Port Said were we were forced to wait for the ship which in the meantime had to go the long way round.
These – foreseeable – difficulties did not break our determination but helped to highlight once again the gravity of the situation in Gaza. Humanitarian help is still systematically blocked from entering Gaza. And the so-called "international community" keeps silent!
Eventually on May 23 the convoy was allowed to move ahead accompanied by Egyptian army and police. Once again we had to stop, this time in Al Arish.
On May 24 the decisive moment seemed to have arrived. All of us have the necessary visa to enter Gaza but the Egyptian border control continued to raise problems. So we could not enter and were forced to sleep at the border station.
Tomorrow morning we will see.
Maria Grazia Da Costa
Italian participant to the Caravan Hope
Member of the Anti-imperialist Camp
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Anti-imperialist Camp
www.antiimperialista.org
camp@antiimperialista.org
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Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario. But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned. "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible
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