At least 38 people of various nationalities were picked up by Egyptian
security services in El Arish and held in their hotel rooms, AFP news
agency reported.

In Cairo hundreds of activists are camped outside the United Nations
mission in Cairo trying to get them to pressure the Egyptians to let
them cross the border with the Gaza Strip.

“I’ve never done this before, I don’t know how my body will react, but
I’ll do whatever it takes,” 85-year-old Hedy Epstein told AFP.

The American activist is a Holocaust survivor, the agency reported.

Meanwhile a convoy of vans carrying supplies which travelled all the
way from London to Jordan has been told by Egyptian officials it must
go all the way back to Syria to get into Egypt.

The “Viva Palestina” convoy, led by British MP George
Galloway, has been blocked from getting on a ferry from Aqaba to the
Egyptian town of Nuweiba where it planned to continue by road to the
Rafah border crossing.

But now the convoy faces a potentially budget-draining
journey back through Jordan to the Syrian port of Latakia, followed by
several ferries to El Arish.

Earlier in December, Egypt rejected a request to allow activists to
march across the border into the Gaza Strip to mark the anniversary of
last year’s conflict.

The Egyptian foreign ministry said the march could not be allowed because of the “sensitive situation” in Gaza.

Over 1,000 activists from 42 countries had signed up to join “the Gaza
freedom march” to mark the anniversary of the Israeli military
incursion into Gaza last year.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than
1,400 Gazans were killed in the 22-day conflict that ended in January,
but Israel puts the figure at 1,166.

Thirteen Israelis, including three civilians, were killed.

Gaza is under a tight Israeli and Egyptian blockade, tightened since Hamas took over the strip in 2007.

Most medicines are allowed into the territory, but their transfer can
be slowed by Israeli and Palestinian bureaucracy, and the entry of
medical equipment and other supplies is limited.

The World Health Organization says that at the end of
November 2009, 125 of 480 essential drugs were at “zero level”, meaning
there was less than one month’s stock left.

Israel says the military operation was – and the continuing blockade is – targeted at Hamas, not Gaza’s civilians.

The Islamist movement has controlled Gaza since June 2007, and has
launched thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel in recent years.