UPDATE ON VIVA PALESTINA STORY OF YESTERDAY

Hat tip to our friend, you know who you are:) Yesterday we reported there was a rumour on twitter regarding the Viva Palestina Convoy being fired upon, however there was no verification of this anywhere. Today I have had this sent to me from a member of the convoy’s blog. So there is some merit to this rumour:

link yesterday we did a rather amateurish protest and hired two boats to take us out towards the Isreali coast and Eilat to display our banners towards the tourists on the corniche at Eilat. The ISrealis seemed to know about the plan as they started firing heavy ordinance down the red sea from a battleship - 10 huge booms directed down the red sea. We all agree that there are informers in the convoy and everyone takes this as a given - but given that the plan was only hatched a couple of hours before we did it, their communication is far better than ours. Other action included the start of the hunger strike and a group climbing the nearby mountain at 5.30 am to hang a paletinian flag (which you can just see from the town).

VIVA PALESTINA HEADING TO SYRIA

They have now decided after Turkish intervention with Egypt to travel to Syria in an attempt to enter as Egypt as supposedly "offered." We will see if Egypt keeps it's word, don't hold your breath on this one:

LINK The aid convoy, stranded in Aqaba, Jordan, for five days, on its way to the Gaza Strip, turns back to Syria after Cairo's refusal to let it cross through its territory.

"After talks between the Turkish government's envoy and the Egyptian consulate in Aqaba, we agreed to go to Syria," Zaher Birawi, spokesman for the convoy, told Agence France-Presse.

"We have told the Egyptians that we were not trying to challenge them and urged them to help us, but they refused," Birawi said.

"The aid convoy will leave Aqaba for (the Mediterranean port of) Latakia in Syria before going to El-Arish, in line with Cairo's decision," said Maysara Malas, of Jordan's powerful trade union federation, which helped organizing the aid convoy.

Birawi also said 15 members of the convoy "have started a hunger strike, while a rally will be held later Sunday."