More activists challenge crippling Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip

In another attempt to break the crippling Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, a group of activists has arrived in Egypt on a humanitarian mission. About 100 US activists with tons of medical supplies arrived in Egypt on Sunday on their way to Gaza, hoping to break the deadly Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory –home to 1.5 million Palestinians.

The activists are part of a convoy of at least 200 people – all Americans – planned to be in Gaza by July 13. The convoy will head to the border after the rest of the group and supplies arrive.

British lawmaker George Galloway, who led a convoy that broke a Gaza blockade in March, has organized the group, and it will be one of the largest groups of US activists to reach the strip since 2007 when Hamas took control of the coastal territory. Egypt and Israel have sealed their borders with the seaside territory since then leaving thousands of Gazans in desperate need of life’s essentials.

Last week, Israeli forces detained a group of foreign activists, including former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and a Nobel Prize laureate, as they were heading to Gaza on a humanitarian mission and confiscated tons of medicine – as well as toys, crayons and olive trees – destined for the besieged people of Gaza.