Hundreds of protesters are gathering in Cairo to mark the anniversary of the Israeli war on Gaza of last year, BBC News reports.

Their aim is to cross the Egyptian border and march into Gaza, a request that has been rejected by the Egyptian authorities because of the “sensitive situation” in the Palestinian territory, as the Egyptian foreign minister said.

A group of activists that reached the Sinai port of el-Arish was detained by the Egyptian police, while hundreds are camped in Cairo, in front of the United Nations mission, on a hunger strike to pressure the Egyptian government. Among them, there is even a 85-year-old American activist survivor of the Holocaust.

The Egyptian government is accusing the activists of trying to embarrass Egypt and willing a media exposure, al-Jazeera English reports.

Meanwhile, the “Viva Palestina” aid convoy led by the british MP George Galloway, has been blocked for five days in the Jordanian port-city of Aqaba. The organizers of the convoy planned to get on a ferry from Aqaba to the Sinai port of Nuweiba, then continue to the border city of Rafah and enter into the Gaza strip, but the Egyptian authorities denied its access five days ago.

After a Turkish mediation, the Egyptian authorities allowed the convoy to enter its Mediterranean port of El-Arish, which means that the convoy must now head to the Syrian port of Latakia and sail to el-Arish, and then continue via land to Gaza, al-Jazeera explains.

The organizers of the Gaza Freedom March are hoping to be able to cross the Palestinian border on December 31, in order to join the Palestinians in a “non-violent march from northern Gaza to the Israeli Erez border”.

The Gaza Strip is under a tight both Israeli and Egyptian blockade, that is limiting the entry of food, medicines and other supplies.

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