President Hosni Mubarak issued instructions Tuesday 1/6/2010 to open Rafah crossing to give access to the necessary humanitarian and medical assistance. He also instructed to receive the humanitarian cases, the injured and the sick that need to cross to the Egyptian lands.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed appreciation for the Egyptian decision to open Rafah crossing for allowing access of international humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians in the seaside enclave.
Ambassador Suleiman Awwad, the Presidential Spokesman said Egypt and President Mubarak denounced the heinous Israeli crime.
In a statement issued on May 31, 2010 by the Presidency of the Republic, President Mubarak denounced Israel's resort to the use of excessive force, expressing Egypt's support for Gazans following the interception by the Israeli troops of the Freedom Flotilla to the Gaza Strip.
The President said the Palestinian reconciliation is the way for lifting the siege clamped on Gaza and ending the suffering of the Strip.
At the same context, Egypt's Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador in Cairo to express Egypt's strong protest and condemnation of the "excessive use of force" by Israel against international activists on board the Freedom Flotilla as it was heading to Gaza to deliver aid to the Palestinians.
Egypt asserted to the ambassador its utter rejection of the continuation of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip and demanded that it immediately and fully be lifted, the spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said.
Egypt has repeatedly warned of the danger and illegitimacy of the arbitrary Israel-imposed blockade on the Gaza Strip, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said, noting that bloody events prove yet again the Israeli authorities' insistence on reminding the world that the Gaza Strip is still under its full occupation.
Egypt secured the release of two Egyptian MPs who were on board Gaza-bound relief boats seized by Israel, said the spokesman.
The two lawmakers left the Israeli detention center in Ashdud and they will return home, Hossam Zaki told the Egyptian TV.
The two parliamentarians are now under the Egyptian side's protection, the spokesman added.
Zaki made it clear that Egypt categorically rejects the Israeli attack against the Freedom Flotilla, saying the attack violated international law and showed excessive use of force.
Israel has to release all activists it arrested during the attack, the spokesman said.
The "blind" use of force by Israel in the attack is not the first, and unfortunately is not meant to be the last, the spokesman pointed out.
At the same time, the People's Assembly Speaker Ahmed Fathi Sorour said the Israeli aggression on the Freedom Flotilla is a punishable crime under the international law. Sorour further said the attack comes as part of Israeli crimes, voicing astonishment at the crime against a flotilla that has been in no aggression on Israel. .
He also said: "We are awaiting the response of the UN Security Council and other organizations such as the International Criminal Court, the International Human Rights Council and the European Union towards the heinous crime."
He noted that Israel has violated all international values by its attack on the flotilla.
Also Egypt's National Council on Human Rights has condemned the Israeli attack on Freedom Flotilla in the international waters.
NCHR President Butros Butros Ghali said the aggression was a flagrant violation of international law.
Furthermore, Egypt's Mufti Ali Gomaa condemned the Israeli attack on the Gaza-bound aid boats, which left at least 20 activists aboard dead and dozens others injured.
This aggression is a blatant violation of the basic humanitarian and international laws, Gomaa said in statements.
The top Egyptian cleric also voiced his full solidarity with families of the victims who sacrificed their lives to rescue the besieged Palestinian people. Such cruel practices expose the Israeli intentions, Gomaa said, adding the Israeli government should bear its responsibilities for its actions. He also called for sparing no effort to break the unjust Israeli blockade on the Strip.
Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, the chairperson of the Egyptian Red Crescent Society, issued directives on Tuesday for the relief committee of the ERCS to immediately send aid convoys to the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, said Dr Mamdouh Gabr, the secretary general of the society.
Gabr said the decision comes in implementation of President Mubarak's decision to send urgent humanitarian assistance to the Gazans.
He said the Red Crescent's youths will start as of Tuesday loading tens of trucks with food and other materials to the Palestinian enclave.
The aid includes medical equipment, food, tents, blankets, power generators and ambulances, he said.