Jordan's opposition Islamic Action Front said on Thursday it is planning a trip to the Gaza Strip from the southern Red Sea port of Aqaba in a bid to break an Israeli blockade of the impoverished Palestinian territory. "We are currently preparing for the trip and collecting aid for our brothers in Gaza to break Israel's unjust and inhuman siege," Rheil Gharibeh, spokesman for the powerful Islamist party, told AFP.
Gharibeh, whose party is the political arm of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and has six seats in the 110-member lower house of parliament, did not give a date for the trip but said it would be by sea from Aqaba port. "Politicians, unionists and opposition party leaders are expected to join us in a bid to draw the world's attention to the crisis in Gaza," he said.
Pro-Palestinian activists from around the world have sailed to Gaza on two separate trips in as many months and a third is due to take place on Friday. A dozen politicians from Britain, Italy, Switzerland and Ireland plan to set sail to Gaza from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to protest against Israeli sanctions imposed after the Islamist Hamas movement seized power last year in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million residents. |