Egyptian police force non-citizens off Gaza convoy buses at gunpoint

Foreign marchers sit in baking desert in protest after being stopped despite valid visas as Sisi govt continues collaboration with Israel to block Global March to Gaza

The humanitarian Global March to Gaza/Sumud Convoy has been stopped at gunpoint in the desert by Egyptian police short of the convoy’s target of the village of Ismailia, en route to the Rafah Crossing border with Gaza to protest against Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people. Forty participants had already been stopped and had their passports taken at a checkpoint on the way out of Cairo, and were held in the heat and not allowed to move for an extended period. A further fifteen were held in hotels. The fifty-five were from France, Spain, Canada, Turkey and the UK.

But now the march organisers have put out the following update:

30 km from Ismailia, the police are stopping all vehicles and making anyone with a non-Egyptian passport get off. Several groups of participants are being held at the first and second checkpoints on the road connecting Cairo to Ismailia. A sit-in has begun at both checkpoints.

Footage released by the Turkish contingent shows peaceful marchers being forced to disembark from their buses:

A Canadian doctor filmed the scene as many were held up and had their passports taken, with only Egyptian nationals being allowed to pass:

Yesterday, Egypt blocked a huge, peaceful convoy of Algerians and Tunisians, who had crossed North Africa to participate, yet the regime claimed it agreed with the marchers’ aims and was acting to protect them, as a graphic published by the Tunisian contingent showed:

All participants had obtained entry visas in advance.

Despite British citizens being among those detained, neither Keir Starmer nor Foreign Secretary David Lammy have so much as mentioned the ongoing incident.

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