Gaza convoy activists receive heroes' welcome in Tunis after being blocked from entering Egypt

Activists taking part in the Global March to Gaza received a hero’s welcome in the Tunisian capital on Thursday evening, after they were forced to turn back from the Libyan city of Sirte, by forces loyal to warlord Khalifa Haftar.

The activists were hoping to reach Egypt, but Haftar’s forces cut off phone, internet and logistical services while blocking the convoy’s advance, reportedly under Egyptian government pressure.

The activists retreated to Misrata in western Libya. All their attempts and negotiations to secure passage through eastern Libya, which is controlled by Haftar’s forces, failed after this and they decided to return to Tunisia on Wednesday.

Around 1,500 activists, mostly from North African countries, were on the convoy. They were hoping to make it through Libya and Egypt to the Rafah border crossing in order to break the siege of Gaza and draw attention to Israel’s genocidal war on the territory, which has killed over 55,000 people.

In recent days hundreds of Gazans have been killed as they desperately tried to secure aid for themselves and their families at points set up by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israel-backed US initiative which has been condemned by the United Nations as a ‘lethal’ system of aid delivery.

The convoy was met in Tunis by a large popular demonstration, with local people gathering to express their solidarity with the activists in their efforts to break the Israeli siege of Gaza.

The demonstrators raised the Palestinian flag and the flags of several other Arab countries, as well as images of people killed in Gaza.

They also condemned Arab governments – particularly that of Egypt – for refusing to open borders and allow humanitarian aid in.

International activists who travelled to Egypt to join the convoy were attacked by security forces and government-affiliated ‘Baltagiya’ thugs.

The demonstrators who met the convoy also called on the Tunisian parliament and president to ratify a long-delayed law criminalising any form of normalisation with Israel.