Some 5,000 people staged a protest yesterday in the city of Beni Suef after Friday's prayer. It was organized by the governorate's political force – starting with the Muslim Brotherhood – to express support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and to demand that Rafah border crossing be opened after Egyptian authorities' decision to close it on Thursday. The demonstrators raised boards with the pictures of some victims of Israel's war on Gaza. They also chanted slogans calling on the Egyptian government to open the crossing, let the aid reach the Palestinians and take full control of the crossing with no international interference. In Menya, more than 2,000 MB members staged another pro-Gaza demonstration in the city of Maghagha. The demonstrators called for boycotting Israel and US commodities and the products of the European countries which back Israel. They also demanded that relations be cut with Israel and the countries supporting it. In Suez, MP and MB member Saad Khalifa said State Security Investigations prevented some MB members from traveling to Cairo yesterday and take part in the march called for by MB General Guide Mahdi Akef to express solidarity with Gaza and demand the opening of the border crossings. In Fayoum, some 8,000 MB members staged three demonstrations in different provinces after the General Guide had called on them to express their anger on Friday and criticize the blockade on Gaza. 500 al-Azhar [chief centre of Arabic literature and Sunni Islamic learning in the world] scholars, mosque preachers working for the Ministry of Endowments and MB members issued a statement against the tightening grip on the Gazans, as they put it. "The Islamic Nation is one single body. Muslims do not besiege their brothers in response to enemies' wishes, as Muslims are forbidden from oppressing their brothers, handing them over or not giving them any help when they need it" the statement reads.
