Egypt detains nearly 200 foreigners who flew in to join Gaza march
Egyptian authorities have detained and questioned more than 200 people who arrived in Cairo to participate in the Global March to Gaza, an international action intended to break Israel’s siege on the territory, the organisers said on Thursday.
According to the march organisers, some 4,000 people from over 80 countries had booked flights to Cairo, with many already arriving ahead of the planned march.
The activists had flown to Cairo to join a grassroots land convoy which set off from the Tunisian capital on Monday, in the hopes of reaching Egypt’s Rafah border with Gaza as a “symbolic act” to spotlight Israel’s crippling 18-year siege on the territory.
Thousands of volunteers from Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia left the Tunisian capital in a 100-vehicle convoy to raise international awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and deliver life-saving aid, organisers said.
An online tracker shows that they are in the Libyan city of Misrata as of Thursday afternoon.
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Despite the Egyptian government issuing a statement instructing the organisers to apply for permission for the action, the organisers say that the authorities have yet to officially respond to their multiple requests to proceed with the march, and that they will be continuing with their plans.
"We hope to be able to work alongside the Egyptian government as a key and valued partner. Our priorities are the same: demanding the end of the Palestinian genocide," the organisers said in a statement on Thursday shared with Middle East Eye.
The initiative’s spokesperson, Saif Abu Keshek, told AFP that over 200 pro-Palestine activists had been detained at Cairo airport “or are being questioned at hotels across Cairo,” adding that detainees include US, Dutch, Australian, French, Spanish, Moroccan and Algerian nationals.
'We have all complied with all the legal requirements of the Egyptian authorities'
– Global March to Gaza
According to Abu Keshek, plainclothes police rounded up activists in Cairo hotels, questioning them and in some cases confiscating mobile phones and searching personal belongings.
He added that following interrogations, some activists were arrested, while others were released.
"Our legal services are working on these cases, as we have all complied with all the legal requirements of the Egyptian authorities," the organisers said in a statement on Thursday.
"Meanwhile, thousands of march participants are already in Egypt, ready to begin the journey to El Arish tomorrow and then continue on foot to Rafah, where we hope to arrive this Sunday."
‘An unexpected turn of events’
German delegation spokesperson Melanie Johanna Schweizer described the developments as “very troubling” and an “unexpected turn of events”.
On Wednesday, the Egyptian foreign ministry issued a statement welcoming “the international, regional, official and popular positions in support of Palestinian rights,” but emphasised that participants would need to “submit an official request to the Egyptian embassies abroad”.
“We have asked for permission,” Schweizer told MEE, adding that the organisers had sent multiple letters to Egyptian embassies, and that they were “very encouraging” and “endorsed the march”.
“It could have been easy for them to say two weeks ago, 'it’s not allowed',” she said. “They had two months’ notice, and they said yesterday that we didn’t fulfil one of the requirements, which is not true.”
Schweizer emphasised that the march organisers were still open to dialogue with the Egyptian authorities.
“We’re still here to come to a middle ground, and have conversations about how it could go. It could be another location, for example,” she said.
Schweizer also reported that mostly people from Arabic backgrounds appeared to have been targeted by the authorities. “Almost all of them, to my knowledge,” she said.
“Some of them were taken even before they had physically entered the airport,” she said, adding that they were removed from the buses transporting them from the plane to the airport.
Swiss delegation spokesperson Hicham el-Ghaoui told MEE that “all the embassies” are at the airport trying to secure the release of detainees, adding that many Spanish and Greek nationals have so far been released.
Egyptian news outlet Mada Masr reported that 40 Algerian nationals were detained on Wednesday morning and released after 24 hours, while 10 members of a delegation arriving from Morocco were reportedly turned back at the airport.
Several Turkish nationals were also reportedly deported, after they raised Palestinian flags outside their hotel, according to a source that spoke to Mada Masr.
A ‘political scheme’
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz has urged the Egyptian authorities to block “the jiadist protesters”, insisting that they “would endanger the safety of [Israeli] soldiers and will not be allowed".
He added that if Cairo fails to halt the march, Israeli forces would intervene to stop it.
A government source was quoted by Mada Masr as saying that the Egyptian authorities had tried to coordinate with departure countries to prevent the participants from reaching Egypt.
Some pro-government figures in Egypt claim the plan is a "political scheme" by people affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt - labelling it an "anti-Egyptian establishment", as opposed to a pro-Palestinian, campaign.
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