Pro-Palestine protesters on ‘march to Gaza' beaten by Egyptian police
Egyptian authorities halted demonstrators planning to march to the country's border with Gaza with the stated aim of breaking Israel's blockade on the territory.
A separate convoy of protesters travelling from Tunisia to meet the larger group was also stopped on Friday by security forces in eastern Libya.
Men in plain clothes were seen in footage kicking and beating demonstrators and attempting to drag some away from the group.
The protesters responded by throwing water at the men, video footage shows. It was not immediately clear whether the assaults were by security services or bystanders, and what unfolded prior to the altercations.
Organisers of the protest – Global March to Gaza – said that 4,000 protesters from 80 countries were planning to land in Egypt for the demonstration. The additional convoy coming to Egypt overland was said to be around another 2,000 people.
Passports of at least 40 people were confiscated, organisers said, after demonstrators demanded to be let through a checkpoint patrolled by officers in riot gear and flanked by armoured vehicles.
Security forces then began forcibly detaining and removing activists to halt the protests.
'Forty participants of the Global March to Gaza have had their passports taken at a checkpoint on the way out of Cairo,' organisers said in a statement.
'They are being held in the heat and not allowed to move,' the statement said, adding that another '15 are being held at hotels'.
The activists are from France, Spain, Canada, Turkey and the United Kingdom, the statement said.
It added: 'We are a peaceful movement and we are complying with Egyptian law.' The group urged embassies to help secure their release so they could complete their voyage.
"Please help your Muslim brothers and sisters…"
A Welsh nurse pleads with Egyptian security forces to allow them to march to #Gaza and deliver aid to starving Palestinians. #Egypt pic.twitter.com/SvsSARfTpJ
— DOAM (@doamuslims) June 14, 2025
Among those who have been detained include Irish MP Paul Murphy, Turkish MP Faruk Dincer, and Hala Rharrit, a former US diplomat who resigned from her position over Washington's handling of the war in Gaza.
A clip of Dincer, released by his political party, shows him in blood-stained clothes. A statement said that he 'was injured as a result of an attack'.
'We have had our passports confiscated and are being detained,' Mr Murphy posted on X. 'It seems Egyptian authorities have decided to crack down on the #GreatMarchTo Gaza. We are refusing to board the deportation bus.'
Murphy, along with others, are now being taken to the airport in Cairo and will be deported. Some activists, like Ms Rharrit, were detained and interrogated upon arriving in Cairo.
As reports were released of demonstrators being blocked, arrested and deported, some international activists who arrived to Cairo later chose instead to stay behind.
The march drew a number of high-profile participants, including Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, a former South African lawmaker and grandson of Nelson Mandela.
It is the latest in a spate of similar demonstrations, aimed at drawing attention to the devastating humanitarian crises that have swept the Gaza Strip after Israel sealed the border and blocked aid trucks from entering in March.
The Madleen, a Gaza-bound aid boat carrying Greta Thunberg, the Swedish climate activist, arrived at an Israeli port earlier in the week. She and the other activists on board were quickly deported by Israeli authorities.
Israel began allowing some limited aid into Gaza last month, but experts and charities have said the supplies were nowhere near the volume needed for the enclave, which has been bombarded with Israeli strikes.
Egypt's position
The march underscores Egypt's challenging position as a country that receives US military aid, and the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.
The country, similarly to Jordan, has simultaneously cracked down on pro-Palestine activists while publicly calling for the war in Gaza to end.
Israel Katz, the Israeli defence minister, said on Wednesday he expected the Egyptian authorities to prevent and halt the demonstrators at 'the border of Egypt-Israel and not allow them to carry out provocations and to try to enter into Gaza'.
Mr Katz said the arrival of the demonstrators could 'endanger the security of the IDF [Israel Defence Forces] soldiers and we will not allow it'.
Alexis Deswaef, a Belgian human rights lawyer, said he woke up to find dozens of security vehicles packed with uniformed officers in an area of Cairo where he and other activists were staying in hotels ahead of the planned march.
'I am so surprised to see the Egyptians doing the dirty work of Israel,' he said.
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