– Egypt bars George Galloway from country (Reuters):
CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian security escorted MP George Galloway to take a flight out of the country on Friday and he was barred from returning after violent protests over an aid convoy he led into Gaza, MENA news agency said.
The Foreign Ministry declared the left-wing politician an “unwelcome individual,” the agency said.
– Three Palestinians killed in Israeli air strike on Gaza (BBC News):
Three people, including a 14-year-old-boy, have been killed in Israeli air strikes overnight in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics say.
The Israeli military said it was responding to mortar and rocket attacks on Thursday on Israel from Gaza.
 Mr Galloway had been in Gaza with an aid convoy |
British MP George Galloway has been deported from Egypt, say activists working with him to take an aid convoy into Gaza.
The Bow and Bethnal Green MP had been with international activists trying to take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Egypt had refused some of the vehicles access and there have been protests and clashes on the Egypt-Gaza border.
The state news agency says Mr Galloway has left Egypt and returned home.
There have also been reports the Respect MP has been declared “persona non grata” and will not be allowed to enter Egypt again, following his criticism of Cairo over delays to the aid convoy.
Convoy tension
The BBC’s Cairo correspondent Yolande Knell said Mr Galloway had returned from Gaza, where the convoy arrived two days ago, and had been planning to head back to London.
But when he and his assistant returned to Egypt they learnt that seven other members of the convoy still in Gaza were due to be arrested on their return to Egypt.
Mr Galloway wanted to go back to accompany them out but it is understood the Egyptians would not allow him to return, bundled both men into a van and escorted them to the airport.
There has been much tension around the aid convoy after Egypt made it take a big detour, delaying its arrival. There were clashes with Egyptian police at a port close to the Rafah crossing, our correspondent said.
A spokeswoman for the convoy said police intervened when Mr Galloway and colleague Ron McKay arrived at the crossing.
“As soon as they emerged on to Egyptian soil, both men were forcibly pushed into a van, refused exit and told that they were leaving the country. They were then driven off in a police convoy.”
She said Mr Galloway had been put on a plane bound for London.
On Wednesday an Egyptian soldier was killed and several Palestinians hurt during clashes over the delayed aid convoy, which involves 550 people from 17 countries. Dozens of activists had been hurt on Tuesday.
Egypt and Israel impose a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, which Israel says is aimed at weakening Hamas.
The Viva Palestina aid convoy, which is carrying items including heart monitors, clothing and dental equipment, aims to break the blockade.
Page last updated at 11:42 GMT, Friday, 8 January 2010
Source: BBC NEWS
On Gaza:
Israel calls this ‘self-defense’!!!:
(Click on image to enlarge.)
I guess Hitler would have called this self-defense too!
More from the most moral army in the world:
– Israel admits organ harvesting from Palestinians, and others, without consent (Guardian)
– UN assembly votes for probes of Gaza war crimes charges (Reuters)
– U.N. rights envoy: Israeli war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law in Gaza (Reuters)
– U.S. shipped 989 munitions containers to Israel week before Gaza invasion (Australien Herald)
– Paul Craig Roberts: Israel and the Goldstone Report – War Criminals Are Becoming Arbiters of the Law (CounterPunch)
– Israel’s war crimes in Gaza (Independent)
– Amnesty International: Gaza white phosphorus shells were US made (Times)
– Did Israeli soldiers kill unarmed civilians? (Toronto Star):
‘The most moral army in the world’ killed civilians without cause
– Israeli soldiers report abuses in Gaza (Los Angeles Times)
– Tony Benn to BBC: If you won’t broadcast the Gaza appeal then I will myself (BBC)
– Israel admits troops may have used phosphorus shells in Gaza (Guardian)
– Outcry over Israel’s reported use of phosphorus in Gaza (IHT)
– Israel accused of executing parents in front of children in Gaza (Telegraph)
– Gaza: ‘I watched an Israeli soldier shoot dead my two little girls’ (Independent)
– Israel ‘admits’ using white phosphorus munitions (Times)
– Gaza building apparently hit by phosphorus: UN (Vancouver Sun)
– Israeli use of white phosphorus ‘undeniable’: Amnesty International (The Age)
– Israel used phosphorus in heavily populated areas, doctors charge (Kansas City Star)
– Israeli army investigates use of white phosphorous in Gaza (Guardian)
– Israel shelled UK war graves in Gaza (Telegraph)
– Israel ‘will resume bombing’ of Gaza if Hamas reopens tunnels (Telegraph)
– Gideon Levy / Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel (Ha’aretz)