Beaten, detained, deported: How Egypt treated foreigners trying to break Gaza siege
Hundreds of international activists seeking to march to Egypt’s border with Gaza with the aim of breaking Israel’s siege reported being “attacked by thugs in civilian clothes” armed with whips and “violently” detained by Egyptian authorities at checkpoints outside of Cairo.
The activists were among 4,000 people from 80 countries who were set to attend the planned Global March to Gaza last week.
According to Hannah Smith, a March for Gaza spokesperson who was present at the first checkpoint, the activists had been negotiating with the authorities for hours before security forces “ran out of patience and started to drag people onto buses”.
“Some protesters were pulled out and beaten. There was a woman who was punched in the face,” Smith said.
“It was a very intense and very sudden escalation. It was coordinated,” she said, adding that at least three people were hospitalised at the first checkpoint.
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When activists began to arrive in Cairo last Wednesday, they were met with Egyptian security forces at their hotels, who reportedly detained and questioned around 200 people.
According to the initial plan, participants were set to travel by bus to the city of al-Arish in the heavily securitised Sinai Peninsula before walking 50 kilometres towards the border with Gaza.
'Some protesters were pulled out and beaten. There was a woman who was punched in the face'
- Hannah Smith, UK activist
But following the crackdown, the march organisers were forced to change their plans and instead instructed activists to gather in Ismailia, a city northeast of Cairo.
Smith said that on Thursday, the authorities appeared to “soften”.
“There weren’t heavy detentions on [the] 12th,” Smith told Middle East Eye, adding that the march organisers, whose names are published on the initiative’s website, were not stopped for questioning.
“It was a very different response on the 12th [of June] than it was on the 11th. So that was an encouraging sign, because we thought that it was just going to be mass detentions and deportations right at the airport as people arrived”.
The activists decided to gather in Ismailia where they would await permission to proceed to Rafah from the Egyptian authorities.
“We weren’t planning a demonstration, we just wanted to be able to get together and await Egyptian government approval,” Smith said.
‘Screams in the dark’
Sami, who used a pseudonym for fear of reprisals, told MEE that she reached the first checkpoint around 8pm to find riot police encircling some 200 people who were staging a peaceful sit-in.
She reported that masked men clad in traditional Bedouin dress descended on the crowd and attacked them with a “device that looked like a whip”.
At one point, the street lamps cut out, plunging the scene into darkness.
“We would occasionally hear screams in the dark. They were clearly using the cover of darkness to attack,” Sami said.
Hungarian activist Komaromy Gergely said he was held at a checkpoint along with “hundreds and hundreds” of other march participants.
“In the evening, the authorities tried to disperse us,” he told MEE in a video interview.
He said they were peacefully sitting and chanting when “dozens of violent thugs in civilian clothes started to attack us”.
They were then encircled by riot police, with some activists “violently” forced onto buses. He said that one activist was so severely beaten, “he very likely had some broken ribs”.
Gergely said that when he eventually complied and made his way towards the bus, he was assaulted by thugs and police, who then forced him into a police van along with 14 others. He said they all had their passports and phones confiscated.
According to Gergely, one of the activists was immediately released as he was a US citizen, while the remaining people were “taken to a faraway police station where we spent the night”.
The following morning, they were taken to Cairo airport and deported.
According to Smith, over 500 people were detained.
Reem, another activist who wished to use a pseudonym, reported that European embassies were slow to react to the situation.
“Before the violence broke out we didn’t really know what they were doing with our passports,” Reem told MEE.
“Swiss people contacted their embassy, and they said, ‘What were you expecting? There is nothing we can do about it,’” she said.
“I think many embassies were saying the same thing - it's basically your fault. Because many people were calling them and asking them to do something, they felt pressured, but I feel it’s a shame they were not proactive from the start”.
'It wasn't all for nothing'
Egypt’s foreign ministry issued a statement on Thursday instructing the organisers to apply for permission for the action and coordinate closely with embassies, citing security concerns in Sinai.
But the march organisers previously told MEE that they had repeatedly contacted the authorities about the action and reported that the embassies were “very encouraging” and “endorsed the march”.
“Everything we did was in accordance with Egyptian laws,” Smith said. “We were still waiting for permission, we gave no indication that we were going to al-Arish and start marching without permission.”
The organisers are currently trying to get participants out of detention and instructing activists to change their flights.
Meanwhile, a parallel initiative, the “Sumud” land convoy, which set off from the Tunisian capital on 9 June carrying thousands of activists from Tunisia, Algeria, Algeria and Morocco was barred from entering the Libyan city of Sirte.
In a statement, organisers said eastern Libyan authorities prevented food, water and medical supplies from reaching approximately 1,500 participants, and reported that at least 13 people are still being detained.
Wael Nawar, the spokesperson for a support caravan organised by Libyan citizens in solidarity, said on Facebook on Saturday that he had been kidnapped, violently assaulted and robbed of his money by authorities allied to military commander General Khalifa Haftar.
Despite the march not getting off the ground, Smith says their efforts were not wasted.
“We have a network of 4,000 people who are willing to drop everything to support Palestine,” Smith said. “This connection that we’ve made in the last few days…it wasn’t all for nothing.
“I don't want to sit here 10 years from now and wonder if we did explore all options to stop the Palestinian genocide,” she said.
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