Press Release: Egypt stalls Asian humanitarian aid caravan to Gaza, passengers include former Member of Parliament, student leader, senior journalist

Pakistanis for Palestine- The ship Salam carrying about 1m $ worth of humanitarian aid for Gaza accompanying the first Asia to Gaza Caravan is not being allowed to dock for reasons as yet unknown at the Al Arish port of Egypt. 8 members of the Caravan, consisting of 4 Indians, Brigadier Sudhir Sawant, former Member of Parliament, Ajit Sahi, senior journalist, Sheheen Kattiparambil, young activist of Jamat-e-Islami, Aslam Khan, student leader of All India Students Association, as well as Koichi Sakaguchi from Japan, Hakim Alizade from Azerbaijan, Muhammad Husein from Indonesia and Norazli Bin Musa from Malaysia, are aboard the ship which left Latakia, Syria, on the morning of 1st January, 2011. The ship has been anchoring about 1 km away from the Al Arish port for about a day now.

Meanwhile over a hundred members of the Caravan have already reached Gaza after a 4 hour hold-up at the Al Arish airport late evening on 2nd January.

The Caravan was apprehensive of interception by Israel, whose two ships and a helicopter followed Salam for almost the whole of daytime on 2nd January. But stalling by Egypt has come as a total surprise. This is the first time that aid for Gaza is being stalled by Egypt. Read more