CAIRO-The Egyptian Red Crescent is about to finish unloading the aid a Libyan docking in the Egyptian port of el-Arish as the transfer of its aid cargo to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip could be delayed. "The Libyans insist that the Ship of Hope's cargo be transferred to Gaza through the Egyptian crossing of Rafah not from the Al-Ouja crossing. This is rejected by Egypt," an Egyptian security official said Saturday. He added that the Egyptian red Crescent would use the Rafah border crossing only for the medical aid. However, the other food aid would be delivered to the United Nation's Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). The Libyan chartered ship, which had 2,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, left Lavrio port in Greece last week for the Gaza Strip, but its course was diverted to el-Arich port in Egypt where it unloaded its cargo to be taken by road to the Strip. Organisers of the aid ship, launched by the Gaddafi Foundation, said agreed to allow the ship to dock in Egypt after an agreement with an European mediator, whose identity has not been disclosed and on the basis of guarantees given by Egypt. It also took into consideration several conditions demanded by the Foundation, particularly the inclusion of building materials, such as cement and iron rods in humanitarian cargo, the implementation of a $50 million housing project and the supply of 500 prefabricated houses to Gaza before the winter. The nine activists aboard the ship -- six Libyan, one Nigerian, one Algerian and one Moroccan -- said they had no plan to travel to Gaza with the cargo, but others from their charity would accompany it. "The activists accompanying the ship refuse to enter Gaza through (Egypt's) Rafah border and another group will come to accompany the aid to Gaza through Rafah," Libyan activist Masha Allah Hamed Abdel Rahman said.
