Clashes erupted on the Gaza side of the Egyptian-Gaza border this afternoon as more than 515 activists of the Viva Palestina convoy on the Egyptian side of the frontier reached a deal with the authorities for its entry into the Strip.
The convoy, which includes a number of Irish people, is taking relief supplies to Palestinians in the Gaza strip.
This evening, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign said the aid convoy crossed the border at Rafah and arrived in Gaza shortly after 7pm (Irish time), a month after the convoy set off on its journey.
Earlier today, one Egyptian soldier was killed, allegedly by Palestinian gunfire, and nine others were wounded, while 35 Palestinians were reported injured, five critically, when Egyptian police fired into a crowd of several hundred protesters, some throwing stones.
The police, who had taken up positions on the top of apartment blocks less than 100 metres from the border, also shot tear gas grenades into the gathering.
The Egyptians have deployed water cannon to prevent Palestinians from breaking through the border fence as they did several years ago.
In Egypt's el-Arish port where the convoy was earlier stalled, John Hurson from Co Tyrone told The Irish Times the organisers of the convoy had reached a deal with the Egyptian authorities which would permit the activists and 159 vehicles to enter Gaza today.
"We will move this evening to border and enter Gaza in the dark," Mr Hurson said. "Aid convoys always enter Gaza in the dark to cut down on media coverage."
He said 59 vehicles loaded with electricity generator, ambulances and four-wheel drive cars will be returned to the port of Latakia in Syria and the contents will be distributed in Palestinian refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.
All those taking part in the Viva Palestina convoy rejected the Egyptian proposal to hand the 59 heavy lorries over to Israel which operates the goods crossings into Gaza. "We refuse to ask permission from Israel," said Mr Hurson.
British MP George Galloway has made the point that Israel does not deliver on its promises in such cases.
Yesterday evening activists were attacked in the port by 2,000 Egyptian police while awaiting a decision from Cairo on the fate of convoy. Some 50-60 of activists sustained head wounds, gashes and bruises while Egypt said 15 policemen were wounded.
The activists, including British, US, Jordanian and Turkish lawmakers, had been promised at the end of last month that all the lorries would be allowed to proceed to the Strip if they were shipped to el-Arish.
The original route of the convoy was to enter Egypt through a Red Sea port, drive overland and reach Gaza through the Egyptian terminal at Rafah.
The activists accuse the Egyptians of reneging on this agreement and of complicity with Israel's tight blockade of Gaza.
In a statement this afternoon, Dublin MEP Proinsias De Rossa called for an end to Israel's "continuing, brutal siege" of Gaza.
"Israel's siege of Gaza, which has now been under way for more than two years, is destroying all hope. Gaza, which is half the size of Co Louth, has been turned into a prison for the population of 1.5m people, half of whom are under 18 years of age," he said.
