According to a Jordan Times report, British police on Saturday seized three vans in an anti-terror raid northwest of England. The vehicles were part of a 100 vehicle convoy delivering aid to Gaza.
Reuters reports that Lancashire police said they were searching five houses in the town of Burnley on Saturday after arresting nine men under anti-terrorism laws on a motorway near Preston on Friday.
Six of the men have been released and the remaining three are still in custody. Police can hold them without charge until Sunday night.
The convoy had been organized by the pro-Palestinian organization Viva Palestina and left central London on Saturday, the group’s website said.
It said volunteers planned to drive 8,000km through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt where they had hoped to cross the border at Rafiach into Gaza on March 2.
It said the vehicles, which include a fire engine and ambulances, were carrying clothes, blankets and children’s toys.
Lancashire police said the cargo from the three seized vehicles was being “thoroughly checked by search officers who are working as quickly as they can to ensure that the parcels can be released and continue on to their destination
(Reuters/Jordan Times)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
2 Responses
they weren’t driving all the way to gaza so how were they getting there? who else is involved??
They WERE planning to drive all the way. This is from ‘The Scotsman’:
“Nine men on their way to join George Galloway’s aid convoy to the Middle East were arrested by counter-terrorism police, it emerged yesterday.
Officers stopped two vans in a planned swoop on the M65 near Preston, Lancs, on Friday. Six men were later released without charge. Three, aged 26, 29 and 36, are still in custody and police later raided five addresses in Burnley.
A spokesman said: “No armed police or firearms were involved in the operation.”
A source added that the men were not suspected of any “imminent terrorist threat in the UK”.
The two vans were due to join more than 100 vehicles heading to Gaza to deliver more than £1million of aid.
The convoy – the brainchild of Respect MP Mr Galloway (a very outspoken pro-palestinian member of parliament-married to an arab) and organised by Viva Palestine – will travel 5,000 miles through France, Spain, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt before eventually arriving at Rafah in March.
Mr Galloway, who did not know the arrested men, said: “It will be the biggest convoy of British vehicles across North Africa since Montgomery.”