Posted on 06/01/2010 5:16:56 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday ordered the opening of the Rafah border crossing to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, the official MENA agency reported.
No more detail on this development yet.
Egypt lifts its side of Gaza blockade for aid
An Egyptian official says the government is temporarily lifting its blockade of the Gaza Strip to allow aid into the area a day after Israel raided an international flotilla carrying supplies to the Palestinian territory and killed nine activists.The governor of northern Sinai, Murad Muwafi, says President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the border crossing to Gaza in the town of Rafah for several days.
Muwafi says the opening of the crossing — which Egypt sealed after Gaza was taken over by Hamas militants in 2007 — is an effort to "alleviate the suffering of our Palestinian brothers after the Israeli attack" on the flotilla.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Pro-Palestinian activists said Tuesday they had sent another boat to challenge the Gaza blockade as Israel faced outrage abroad and questions at home over its botched raid on an aid flotilla in international waters that ended with soldiers killing nine activists.
The raid provoked the most ferocious international condemnation of Israel since its war with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip a year and a half ago and appeared likely to increase pressure to end its blockade that has deepened the poverty of the 1.5 million Palestinians living in the strip. The U.N. Security Council condemned the "acts" that resulted in the deaths and called for an impartial investigation.
Greta Berlin of the Free Gaza Movement, which organized the flotilla, said another cargo boat was off the coast of Italy en route to Gaza. A second boat carrying about three dozen passengers is expected to join it, Berlin said. She said the two boats would arrive in the region late this week or early next week.
"This initiative is not going to stop," she said from the group's base in Cyprus. "We think eventually Israel will get some kind of common sense. They're going to have to stop the blockade of Gaza, and one of the ways to do this is for us to continue to send the boats."
Suffering consisting of a shortage of katusha rockets, rifles, Israeli flags to burn, and assorted other weapons to be used against Israel.
The chief organizer of the ship which the Israelis boarded has stated that their little stunt really had nothing to do with humanitarian aid, but was a deliberate and concerted attempt to "break the blockade".
Now, if humanitarian aid can already be sent in to Gaza with little or no restrictions (other than Israel and/or the Egyptians verifying that the shipments do, indeed, contain no weapons) then WHY would the blockade need to be "broken"?
Gaza is run by a terrorist organization. It would not bother me in the least if the area was COMPLETELY blockaded until ALL Hamas members (aka terrorists) surrender or are killed.
Not if Israel doesn’t run out of torpedoes.
Or balls.
And IMO this is all the result of Obama's pathetically weak commitment (if any) to our ally, Israel, and his general affinity for all things muslim.
From the start his attacks on all things Israel has been tacit approval for the pali’s to attack attack attack.
He would like nothing more than to see that tiny democracy destroyed.
Just listen to the likes of Rev. Wright, Cynthia McKinney and assorted other vicious anti semites.
Hot hot summer.....
Obama's antisemitism and disdain for Israel has sent a message to the world that Israel is on her own as far as he is concerned and that has emboldened Israel's muslim enemies greatly.
It looks like Israel will soon face an existential challenge! She is surrounded by enemies and Obama has turned his back.
nice tag line!;-)
"Obama buddy Bill Ayers & campaign bundler Jodie Evans top activists with Gaza Flotilla Group" (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2525153/posts)
The wrong people were called to evacuate from Gaza. Now chickens are coming to roost.
There’s no way to win the world’s approval. Might as well go all in, go back and do Gaza right.
Note that, in its defense of Obama, Media Matters (the Soros Organ) asserts only that Obama doesn't have a relationship with Ayers or Evans.
Media Matters DOES NOT DENY that Ayers and Evans are involved with the Gaza Flotilla.
sounds like Israel walked into a trap here ...
I got an idea guaranteed to bring “peace” strap Bill Ayers onto a truck rented in Egypt and try to storm thru their part of the border.
Good reminder to leftist idiots that Egypt is also blockading Gaza because of fears of Iranian arms.
That is true.
Remember that the reason the Egyptians closed the border was that Hamas was not only using it to smuggle arms and terrorists through Egypt into Gaza, they were also going the other way with it—terrorists were going INTO Egypt from Gaza. Combine that with a couple of stampedes of refugees to the border, and the Egyptians closed it as a security measure. So it’s OK for them to do it, but of course, not for Israel to do the exact same thing, in the mind of liberals.
}:-)4
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