U.S. Copts Association

Brotherhood members arrested in Fayoum, Port Said, Beni Seuif for trying to bring medical supplies to Gaza.
 

CAIRO - Egyptian police have arrested 32 Muslim Brotherhood members over the past two days, the Islamists and security officials said on Wednesday.

Twelve men were arrested in raids on Wednesday morning in Fayoum province south of Cairo for suspected involvement in an attempt to bring medical supplies to Gaza earlier this month, the Brotherhood said on its website.

On Tuesday, police arrested 14 Brotherhood members in the Mediterranean town of Port Said, another five in Cairo and one in Beni Sueif, also south of the capital, on similar grounds, the Brotherhood said.

Egyptian police detained more than 30 activists earlier this month when they organised a convoy of medical supplies to Rafah, the only border crossing in the impoverished Palestinian coastal strip not controlled by Israel.

Egypt occasionally permits people to enter and leave Gaza, but has refused to open the Rafah crossing permanently.

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest opposition group, is formally banned but fielded independent candidates in the 2005 parliamentary elections, winning a fifth of seats. It opposes Egypt’s policy on the Rafah crossing.

Human rights groups slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.”

A group of Arab international lawyers and human rights activists had accused Israel on of committing “genocide” through its crippling blockade of the Strip.

Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Gaza.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.