Viva Palestina Enters Gaza as Israel Plans Further Offensive

08/01/10

There were jubilant scenes in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night [January 6] as the Viva Palestina international aid convoy finally crossed into the Palestinian city of Rafah after spending over a moth on the road.

There was universal relief among the 500 convoy members that they had reached their destination, especially in light of a brutal attack on participants by Egyptian riot police the previous evening.

That night [January 5], around 2,000 riot police attacked the compound where the Viva Palestina vehicles and participants were situated, after the Egyptian negotiator walked away from talks with convoy leaders on their journey through the country and into Rafah.

The riot police also used water cannons and tear gas, as well as throwing rocks and stones, and were joined by local thugs in their attack. As things calmed down, dozens of convoy members had been injured and another dozen had been arrested.

The following morning though they got into their vehicles and finally left Al-Arish for the 40-mile journey to the Gaza Strip. As part of the negotiations Egypt refused to allow 59 of the vehicles, a quarter of the entire convoy, to travel. Egyptian authorities had hoped to hand the vehicles over to the Israeli state, but instead they will be driven back to Syria and Lebanon, and will be donated to the local Palestinian refugee camps.

The convoy was due to arrive in Gaza on December 27, the first anniversary of the assault launched by Israeli forces on the Gaza Strip that left over 1,400 people dead. As Viva Palestina members and Palestinians remembered that assault, Israeli TV was reporting that its military was drilling in the Negev desert in preparation for another offensive against Gaza.

Israeli primer minister Binyamin Netanyahu had previously criticised last winter’s assault for not going far enough to “get the job done” and it now appears that Israeli forces plan to occupy the entire Gaza Strip in order to overthrow the democratically-elected Hamas government.

On Tuesday [January 5], an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed a member of the Salah Ed Deen Brigades and injured four others.

Abu Mojahid, a spokesperson for the Salah Ed Deen Brigades, said that attack showed that “the Zionist enemy is seeking escalation”, and called on fighters to prepare to defend the people and to counter future Israeli aggression.

Last night [January 7], Israeli forces launched airstrikes on several targets throughout the Gaza Strip, killing three people and injuring dozens more. One of the air raids targeted the tunnels between Rafah and Egypt, used to smuggle much-needed supplies into the area, killing a 14-year-old boy.