Four foreign nationals from the UK, US Ireland and Australia, who helped peacefully challenge the siege of Gaza by traveling through international waters, are now effectively imprisoned in Gaza at the order of the Egyptian and Israeli authorities.

Attempts were made on August 29th to peacefully, exit Gaza through Israeli controlled Erez crossing. Israel denied the exit.

On August 30th and 31st further attempts to exit Gaza through the Egyptian controlled Rafah crossing were also denied.

Among the internationals are Irish activist and former Hawaiian Legislator Kenneth O'Keefe, British journalist Lauren Booth (sister in law of the Middle East envoy Tony Blair) and Dr. William Dienst, a family and emergency room physician from the USA.

The Egyptian authorities refusal to permit them entry was communicated by Major General Ahmed Abd El Khaleq (from the Egyptian Ministry of Interior).

This action confines the internationals to the 40 by 10 kilometer enclave of Gaza, along with 1.5 million Palestinians, likewise sealed off from loved ones who live abroad.

An official statement by the Israeli Defense Ministry on August 25th declared that the Free Gaza Mission did not violate any laws, and that this action posed no “security threat” (Ha'aretz). Israel did not intervene.

However, officials from Egypt are today adopting Israel's subsequent (and contradictory) position that the Free Gaza participants entered Gaza “illegally” despite the fact the Cypriot authorities approved the sea voyage, a journey that did not need approval from Egypt or Israel.

The politically motivated decision on the part of the Egyptian government appears to be intended to punish the participants in the Free Gaza Mission for lawfully bypassing Israeli and Egyptian restrictions. Restrictions that make travel to and from Gaza virtually impossible.

Egypt has opened the Rafah crossing a total of 8 days in 2008.

Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights clearly states that:

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state

(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.