ALEXANDRIA: More than 50,000 Egyptians demonstrated in Alexandria after prayers on Friday against Israel’s two-week onslaught in the Gaza Strip, witnesses and security officials said.
The demonstrators, led by members of parliament affiliated with the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, chanted slogans against the Israeli offensive and what they called Arab complicity in the blockade of Gaza.
The protesters chanted “Down with Israel, and with it every collaborator, and “Gaza excuse us: opening Rafah is not in our hands, referring to the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, which Egypt has refused to permanently open.
A security official said at least 50,000 demonstrators had assembled in the Mediterranean city after Friday prayers.
An AFP correspondent said thousands of riot police had tried to prevent the demonstration but gave up because of the number of demonstrators.
Riot police massed outside some mosques in Cairo successfully prevented protesters from gathering and police arrested 35 opposition activists in the morning, a security official said.
He added that the ministry of religious endowments had told preachers on Thursday to avoid the conflict in their Friday sermons.
“They were warned to stay away from the Hamas topic and not to incite the masses, the official said.
In Al-Arish, a coastal town close to Gaza, several policemen were lightly wounded after demonstrators pelted them with stones when they tried dispersing a protest, a security official said.
An AFP correspondent in the town said police beat demonstrators with truncheons to disperse them.
The government has refused requests from Hamas and its regional allies to open the Rafah border crossing, citing a 2005 agreement that required the presence of EU monitors and Palestinian Authority representatives at the passage.
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, had earlier denounced an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire.
The proposal, announced on Tuesday, called for a limited truce to allow for humanitarian aid and talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials. -AFP
