Global March to Gaza coordinator arrested amid ongoing police crackdown

The Global March to Gaza called on Egyptian authorities to release Saif Abukeshek — one of the initiative’s coordinators — along with all other detainees who had traveled to Egypt to participate in the march.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the organizers condemned the continued targeting of foreign delegations by Egyptian police. This comes despite their announcement on Monday that all planned activities in Egypt had been suspended and that the coordinators were committed to operating within the bounds of the law. 

Nonetheless, plainclothes police officers continued to track down and forcibly remove participants “from hotel rooms, cafes, shops and the streets, without cause or explanation,” according to the Tuesday statement, a copy of which Mada Masr reviewed. 

On Monday afternoon, three participants were targeted while sitting at a cafe in Cairo: Norwegian nationals Jona Selhi and Huthayfa Abuserriya and Spanish-Palestinian Saif Abukeshek. The three, the statement read, were “blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and brutally beaten,” with no formal charges. Selhi, who was allowed a brief phone call while in police custody, relayed the information.

The two Norwegians were later transferred to a detention center at Cairo International Airport, according to the statement. Abukeshek remains in custody, with his whereabouts still unknown. Selhi said Abukeshek was “singled out” for particularly severe abuse. 

Egyptian authorities also deported eight Tunisian activists on Tuesday. One of the deportees wrote on Facebook that they were held for six hours at Cairo International Airport, during which they were subjected to insults and violence before being deported under police escort. Their passports, he wrote while on the plane, were confiscated, only to be returned upon arrival in Tunisia.

In a statement issued Monday, the Global March to Gaza said that Egyptian authorities detained two members of its international coordination committee — French national Hicham El Ghaoui and Canadian national Manuel Tapial — before deporting them. 

Later that day, the coordinators instructed all participants to leave Egypt. They explained that the decision came after they met the day before with embassies of the participating delegations and received mixed responses — some were supportive and willing to defend the marchers, while others were not.

The Global March to Gaza, launched this month, brought over 4,000 activists from more than 80 countries to Egypt in an attempt to peacefully approach the Rafah border crossing and draw attention to Gaza's deepening humanitarian crisis.

However, since their arrival, they have faced intimidation and arrests from Egyptian authorities which ultimately forced the organization to instruct delegations to leave Cairo earlier this week.