Egyptian Activist locks embassy in Netherlands again in Solidarity with Gaza

An Egyptian activist and content creator, Anas Habib, once again locked the outer gates of his country’s embassy in The Hague on Thursday, protesting Cairo’s closure of the Rafah Crossing, which has hindered vital aid from reaching besieged Palestinians in Gaza.

Habib expressed his frustration in a Facebook post, stating, “There’s an English proverb that goes, ‘Don’t make threats you can’t back up.’ It implies that one should not make threats they cannot fulfil, you delusional foreign minister of what I regard as a terrorist organization.” His remarks were directed at Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aati and accompanied by a video clip of the incident.

This came after a leaked video surfaced, showing the Foreign Minister in conversation with Egypt’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Imad Hanna. 

In the clip, Abdel Aati expressed anger over the embassy incident, suggesting that the ambassador had failed in his duty to protect the embassy, encouraging similar actions in other countries.

READ: Gaza needs 1,000 trucks of aid per day to meet local needs, official

The Foreign Minister indicated that all Egyptian agencies were dismayed by the occurrence in the Netherlands and reiterated that anyone attempting to compromise an embassy’s security should face consequences.

In defence, Ambassador Hanna stated that the embassy in the Netherlands was the first to experience such an incident and assured that other Egyptian embassies had since taken precautionary measures.

Habib’s video showed him and fellow activists devising a plan to lock the embassy gates once more, with Habib intending to distract the security guard while another activist secured the lock.

The plan succeeded, and the gates of the Egyptian embassy in the Netherlands were locked once again. Habib asserted, “I will return, and I speak on behalf of the free people within who witness your humiliation and the extent of your weakness and fragility.”

READ: Smotrich declares West Bank as part of Israel by “Divine Promise”