AMMAN: A group of Jordanian trade unionists urged Egypt on Tuesday to grant them entry into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing to show solidarity with the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
"The 12-member group, which includes journalists, has been waiting at Rafah for the past four days but the Egyptian authorities are banning them from entering Gaza for unknown reasons," said Alaa Borqan, who is in charge of public relations at the Islamist-dominated trade unions.
"They carry nothing but solidarity for the people of Gaza."
Borqan added that the unions sent a letter to Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif urging him to allow the delegation into Gaza.
"We don’t understand why Egypt is doing this. They granted entry to a Lebanese delegation on Monday and we have information that a Malaysian group will enter the strip today," Borqan told AFP.
Jordan’s Islamic Action Front, the main opposition party, urged Egypt in an online statement to "help all those who want to ease the sufferings of Palestinians in Gaza."
The impoverished Palestinian territory of 1.5 million people has been under a crippling blockade since militants based in the enclave captured an Israeli soldier in a deadly cross-border raid in 2006.
Israel tightened its grip after the Islamist Hamas movement seized control of Gaza the following year.
The Rafah border is Gaza’s only crossing that bypasses Israel.
Egypt, which is building an underground steel barrier to stop the smuggling of goods and weapons into Gaza via a network of underground tunnels, has kept Rafah largely closed, opening it for humanitarian cases on two days a week.
But earlier this month Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the opening of the border after a deadly Israeli raid on a flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
