July 17, 2025
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Egypt blocked activists planning to take part in a march to Gaza, halting their attempt to reach the border and challenge Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid to the Palestinian territory before it could begin.
To draw attention to the humanitarian crisis afflicting people in Gaza, marchers have for months planned to trek 30 miles across the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt's border with the enclave on Sunday to “create international moral and media pressure” to open the crossing at Rafah and lift a blockade that has prevented aid from entering.
Authorities have deported more than three dozen activists, mostly carrying European passports, upon their arrival at the Cairo International Airport in the past two days, an Egyptian official said Thursday. The official said the activists aimed to travel to Northern Sinai “without obtaining required authorizations.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief the media.
Egypt has publicly denounced the restrictions on aid entering Gaza and repeatedly called for an end to the war. It has said that the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing remains open, but access to the strip has been blocked since Israel seized the Palestinian side of the border following Hamas' terror attack on Israel in October 2023.
The Egyptian government has for years clamped down on dissidents and activists when their criticism touches on Cairo’s political and economic ties with Israel, a sensitive issue in neighboring countries where governments maintain diplomatic relations with Israel despite broad public sympathy for Palestinians.
Egypt had earlier warned that only those who received authorization would be allowed to travel the planned march route, acknowledging it had received “numerous requests and inquiries.”
“Egypt holds the right to take all necessary measures to preserve its national security, including the regulation of the entry and movement of individuals within its territory, especially in sensitive border areas,” its foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Israel Katz, Israel’s defense minister, yesterday referred to the protestors as “jihadists” and called on Egypt to prevent them from reaching the border with Gaza. He said they “endanger the Egyptian regime and constitute a threat to all moderate Arab regimes in the region.”
