---SNIP--- The government, a major recipient of U.S. military aid that maintains ties with Israel, has arrested and charged 186 activists with threatening state security since the war began, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Many of them said they were protesting peacefully and collecting donations for Gaza. Still, the severity of the crackdown surprised European activists. Antonietta Chiodo, who traveled to Cairo from Italy, said those awaiting further instruction had been detained, interrogated, treated harshly by Egyptian authorities or deported.