Thursday 26 February 2009

Tunisian police stop Gaza aid convoy

Report from PressTV...

Tunisian police have stopped 'Viva Palestina', a Gaza-bound humanitarian aid convoy, arresting two human rights activists without charges.

The incident came upon the aid convoy's arrival in Tunisia from Algeria on late Wednesday, said Press TV's Yvonne Ridley who is accompanying 'Viva Palestina' on its journey to Gaza.

The convoy departed from London loaded with medicine, food, clothes and toys for the Gazans who are living under difficult conditions due to a 19-month Israeli blockade of the Palestinian enclave.

The UK police had earlier arrested three men from Burnley, Lancashire, on February 13 as they were driving on a motorway to leave Britain as part of the one-million-pound aid convoy, organized by former Labor lawmaker George Galloway.

Lancashire police had to drop the alleged terror-linked charges and release the three men almost a week later.

'Viva Palestina' comprises of more than 100 vehicles which left London and boarded ferries from Ramsgate in Kent, to Ostend, Belgium, en route to Gaza.

The convoy includes 12 ambulances and a fire engine, and carries medicine, tools, clothes, blankets and shoeboxes full of children's treats.

The convoy plans to travel 5,000 miles through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt before arriving at Rafah in Gaza early next month.

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