Aid convoys bound for the Gaza Strip will now be banned from traveling across Egypt after activists this week clashed with police, the foreign minister said in remarks published Saturday. Ahmed Abul Gheit told government newspaper Al-Ahram that members of one convoy led by British MP George Galloway committed “criminal” acts on Egyptian soil on their way to the blockaded Palestinian coastal enclave. “Egypt will no longer allow convoys, regardless of their origin or who is organizing them, from crossing its territory,” Abul Gheit said. “Members of the (Viva Palestina) convoy committed hostile acts, even criminal ones, on Egyptian territory,” the foreign minister added without elaborating. Tuesday night activists with the Viva Palestina convoy clashed with police in Egyptian the port town of El-Arish, 45 kilometers (30 miles) from the Gaza border. They had been protesting an Egyptian decision to send some of the convoy's trucks to Gaza through Israel. Seven protesters were arrested during Tuesday's clashes, but police swapped them for four policemen held by the activists.A prosecutor in El-Arish later issued warrants for the arrest of seven activists, including two Britons and an American woman. Abul Gheit was speaking to Al-Ahram from Washington where he is on a visit to discuss the Middle East peace process. He said that, from now on aid to Gaza must be handed over to the Red Crescent at El-Arish who will turn it over to the Palestinian chapter of the Muslim relief organization in Gaza. The comments come a day after a foreign ministry official told Galloway he was no longer welcome in Egypt as he flew out of the country. Activists leave A group of several hundred international activists from an aid convoy to the blockaded Gaza Strip have been allowed to leave Egypt Saturday, despite earlier threats to have some arrested because they scuffled with police, an airport official said. The official said six of the activists, who were wanted by the prosecutor general for their role in violence at El-Arish port where the convoy was delayed, were allowed to leave along with the rest. The official did not give names of the six activists, but he said two of them were Turkish, two Britons, a Kuwaiti and a Malaysian.
