Yousif: Aid convoys to Gaza will continue

Coordinator of the “Miles of Smiles” convoys Dr Isam Yousif affirmed on Tuesday that efforts to break the international siege on the Gaza Strip would continue by all means.

Miles of Smiles refers to a series of international aid convoys that started to arrive in the besieged Gaza Strip starting in 2010. They come in line with other attempts to break the siege that Israel has imposed on the Strip since 2006 while the international community has stood idly by.

Speaking to Al-Quds TV, Yousif said: “Our aid convoys aiming to breaking the siege will continue. Even if we do not arrive in Gaza, our support to the projects in Gaza will not stop.”

Meanwhile, he called for more relief convoys to the Strip, and asked organisers to plan for breaking the siege by ground, sea and air.

Commenting on the situation in Egypt, since the convoys reach Gaza through Egypt, he said: “Sinai witnesses today a very dangerous situation.” He continued: “Whatever changes may come, the Egyptian people will continue siding with the Palestinian cause.”

Yousif called for the Egyptian authorities to understand the true aim of the aid convoys: breaking the siege on Gaza.

He also denied that the Egyptian authorities have refused to allow new convoys affiliated with Miles of Smiles to enter to Gaza from Egypt. “We are in contact with the Egyptian authorities,” he said, and “we have not faced any refusal to transport aid, even though our application was postponed.”

About the propaganda campaign against the Strip, he ruled out that Gaza had any role in the turmoil in Egypt. He affirmed that the aid convoys do not depend on who is ruling Egypt.

“We, the convoys, do not care whom the ruler of Egypt or the Gaza Strip is,” he said. “We stand against an oppressive siege against the Strip imposed by both Israel and the UN.”