Egypt arrests doctor who volunteered to help Gaza’s wounded

Egyptian authorities have arrested a doctor who volunteered to tend to the wounded in the Gaza Strip.

Hossam El-Din Shaaban was arrested by the Egyptian army after allegedly “disclosing military secrets” after he shared a series of posts on Twitter about his journey through North Sinai, reports the New Arab.

North Sinai has been razed to the ground by the Egyptian army and over 10,000 people forcibly displaced. Access to the region has been strictly limited as Egypt has tried to maintain control over the narrative that it is fighting a just war on terror.

Shaaban is an orthopaedic surgeon at the Qasr-Aini Hospital in Cairo and one of 1,000 Egyptian doctors who have registered to volunteer with the Egyptian Medical Association to help the wounded in Gaza.

“We headed in the morning from the city of Bir Al-Abd towards Arish with a security force consisting of two signal-jamming cars, three armoured vehicles, a jeep, and an explosive detection unit, and we crossed 80 kilometres in five totally exhausting hours,” he wrote on Twitter.

READ: Egypt will never be an honest broker for Palestine until facts really change on the ground

Shaaban also said he had met Egypt’s assistant health minister and that on Sunday no injured person had passed through the Rafah Crossing.

The Egyptian government has been preparing hospitals in North Sinai to receive the wounded from Gaza.

As of Monday, three wounded Palestinians had arrived in North Sinai and there were 50 ambulances in Rafah to transport patients.

Egypt allowed one team from the Jordan Medical Services to enter the Strip, 35 surgeons and 17 trucks of medical equipment.

None of the 1,000 doctors who volunteered has yet entered.

At the same time as openly declaring its support for Palestine, Cairo has clamped down on any pro-Palestinian solidarity on the ground at home.

Last Friday, Omar Morsi was arrested after he waved the Palestinian flag in Tahrir Square and was later forcibly disappeared.

Journalist Nour Al-Huda was also arrested for raising the flag but released hours later.

Morsi has now been released but traders in downtown Cairo report that the Palestinian flags continue to be confiscated from them by Egyptian police.