Finally … Egypt Allows Entry Of Algerian Aid Convoy To Gaza

The Egyptian authorities finally decided to allow the Algerian aid convoy to enter the Gaza Strip, after nearly two months of a stalemate at the port of El Arish near the Gaza Strip.

The Algerian Muslim Scholars’ Association announced that its efforts with the Egyptian side had succeeded in authorizing the Algerian aid convoy to cross into Gaza as senior members of the Palestinian government are now in the Gaza Strip as part of ongoing efforts to achieve national reconciliation after the dissolution of the Hamas-led administrative committee in the enclave.

A delegation from the Algerian Association of Ulemas or Muslim scholars traveled to Egypt to accompany the aid convoy to the Gaza Strip.

In this context, the official in charge of relations within the Relief Committee of the Association said that the largest amount of aid, especially medicines, medical equipment and ambulances, will duly enter the Gaza Strip.  

Such a humanitarian assistance was a special request from Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza Strip, as the patients of these battered health facilities are woefully grappling with chronic and other serious diseases such as cancer.

The official also said that customs procedures were still underway with the border authorities in Egypt so as to divert the remaining humanitarian aid to the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh, adding that the Association had begun fundraising for the establishment of a field hospital on the border between Burma and Bangladesh to ensure the health care of the hapless refugees.

A delegation from the Association is bracing meanwhile to travel to Bangladesh and to inquire about the living conditions of the Rohingya refugees in the camps. 

The humanitarian delegation includes a doctor and a pharmacist, as well as officials of the Association, whose first task is to get to know on the spot the urgent needs of the Rohingya refugees. 

The Association has started collecting donations and appealed to the well-meaning benefactors to donate via its current bank account number: Cap 377415 81.

The Association of Muslim Scholars sent four convoys containing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, but the Egyptian authorities set manifold hurdles in front of the arrival of the fourth aid convoy, which includes four ambulances as well as tons of medicines and foodstuffs in addition to various medical equipment worth over five million dollars.