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Dozens hurt in Egypt-Gaza clashes Fatal clash at Gaza-Egypt border
(about 13 hours later)
More than 50 people have been hurt in clashes between Egyptian police and pro-Palestinian activists seeking to take a convoy of supplies to Gaza. An Egyptian soldier has been killed and at least eight Palestinians hurt in clashes at the Egypt-Gaza border.
Protests reportedly broke out when Egyptian authorities at the port city of Al Arish ordered some lorries to go via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint. Egyptian security officials said the soldier was hit by Palestinian gunfire from across the border, during protests over a delayed aid convoy.
British MP George Galloway, leading the convoy, told Reuters that Israel was likely to prevent them entering Gaza. International activists have been trying to take 200 aid trucks into the blockaded Gaza Strip, but Egypt has refused some of the vehicles access.
The activists want all the goods to be sent via Egypt's Rafah crossing. Dozens of activists were hurt during protests over the convoy on Tuesday.
Some 520 people are travelling with the convoy. Reports suggest about 40 of them and 15 Egyptian police were injured in the clashes. The violence broke out as hundreds of Palestinians began throwing stones across the border at Egyptian security forces, who fired back at the protesters.
Reuters news agency quoted a security source saying that the police had used water cannon to force the activists to leave Al Arish harbour after they had occupied it in protest. The Islamic movement Hamas, which controls Gaza, had called the demonstration over the convoy.
Mr Galloway, the sole MP for the Respect party in the British parliament, told Reuters: "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza." But Hamas police later fired into the air to disperse the crowd, witnesses said.
Gaza is under a tight Israeli and Egyptian blockade, tightened since Hamas took over the strip in 2007. The Egyptian soldier was apparently killed by gunfire from the Gazan side.
The clashes follow an earlier row with the Egyptian authorities over what route the convoy should take to reach Egypt in the first place. Egypt and Israel impose a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, which Israel says is aimed at weakening Hamas.
The convoy of nearly 200 trucks is carrying food and other relief supplies for Palestinians in Gaza. The activists said 60 people were hurt in the clashes
The Viva Palestina aid convoy, carrying items ranging from heart monitors to clothing and dental equipment, is aiming to break the blockade.
A spokeswoman for the group of about 500 international activists said the Egyptians had gone back on an agreement to allow their 200 aid trucks to enter.
Alice Howard said Egypt had said that dozens of the trucks would have to enter via an Israeli-controlled checkpoint - which Viva Palestina believed meant the goods would never reach their destination.
She said she understood the reason was because of the nature of some of the goods.
Items other than basic foodstuffs and medicines, such as medical machinery, are subject to a stringent approvals procedure, usually negotiated by established international aid organisations with the Israeli authorities.
Some of the activists staged a sit-in at the port of Al-Arish, where the trucks are currently waiting, which was broken up by some 2,000 Egyptian riot police, Ms Howard said.
Many of those injured were "quite severely beaten, with head injuries", she said. A few were taken to hospital, but returned to the convoy on Wednesday morning.
Several Egyptian security forces were also reported to have been injured.
Television footage showed Egyptian riot police hitting the activists with batons. Some of the activists responded by throwing stones.
UK MP George Galloway, with the convoy, said: "It is completely unconscionable that 25% of our convoy should go to Israel and never arrive in Gaza."
The clashes follow an earlier row with the Egyptian authorities over what route the convoy should take to reach Egypt in the first place