Back in Damascus - next stop Tartus

from the PSC blog

Things are moving slowly, yet quickly at the same time. Slow in that there's a lot of waiting to find out what's happening, and what's going to happen, but quickly in that the situation keeps changing all the time.

We spent four days in Aqaba in the end, while the Turkish government negotiated with the Egyptians, trying to persuade them to let us land in Nuwaiba. Some of the convoy held a symbolic hunger strike for the last two days, an impressive amount of time without food, and only water. We set up a small sheltered area in the compound for them, and made banners, which included 'Hungry for Gaza', and 'Gaza needs medicine more than we need food'.

But in the end, Egypt held fast and refused us entry. However, the negotiations weren't totally unproductive - we were told that if we sailed from Syria to the Egyptian port of Al Arish, we would be allowed to land. So, yesterday, we said goodbye to our amazing friends in Aqaba - one of the Palestinian hotel owners who gave his hotel free of charge to us held a farewell feast for us in the compound -  and set off on the long drive back through Jordan  and into Syria to Damascus.

We're back in the Sahara Hotel - again free of charge - and this morning learnt that the Egyptians will allow us into Gaza for 48 hours. Wonderful, wonderful news. What we don't know is when they'll let us in, and how many of us will be allowed to enter.

Last night, Palestinian Syrians, having learnt of our arrival, came to the hotel to visit us. Never have I heard the words 'Thank you, we're so proud of you', so many times and not deserved them. Do any of us? We're doing what has to be done. We're doing what our governments should be doing.

A wonderful young girl came to visit us with her family last night. The family is originally from the south of Palestine, now taken by Israel, and so they're unable to go back. She told us how she loved to meet people who are going to Palestine, or coming back from there, because 'I feel they're holding a part of my homeland'.

We're all sitting around in the lobby of the Sahara at the moment, where there's an intermittent wi-fi connection. The Turkish and Syrian governments are helping to arrange ferries, which will sail from the port of Tartus at some point tomorrow. It's about 250km to Tartus, and the Syrian government has asked us to wait in this hotel until the ferries have docked and are ready to take us.

The boat journey will take around 19 hours, so we'll celebrate New Year's Eve on board. When we land on New Year's Day, we will be so close to Gaza. We've heard reports of how eagerly they're waiting for us - visitors to their cage.

Follow the convoy at

Reading PSC
Bob goes to Gaza
PSC blog
GazaGiftAid.org London2Gaza
joti2gaza
york2gaza
middle east monitor
Waltham Forrest PSC

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