Sacramentans Will Take Medical Supplies to Dangerous Gaza

Even as Israeli gunboats are seizing Americans and others trying to help desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, three Sacramentans will announce Thursday they are heading to the area with medical supplies - and two ambulances.

A news conference to provide details will be held THURSDAY, July 2, at 9:30 a.m. at the Federal Courthouse (5th & I St.).

Also present will be two other Sacramentans who just returned from the area after an eight-month stay.

Sacramentans Edwina White, Mohammed Armiti, and Mary Brassell, will leave this week for Egypt and hope to cross into Palestine's Gaza Strip on July 4 with medical supplies, including two ambulances purchased with Sacramento-raised donations.

They will join thousands of other international human rights activists who are trying to break the Israeli and Egyptian blockade against Gaza's million and a half residents, 80 percent of whom are refugees and half of whom are under 18.

Funding for the ambulances was raised in Sacramento in conjunction with British Parliament member George Galloway's address to over a thousand people at the Radisson in May. Galloway had recently supported a successful Viva Palestina convoy which took over 100 vehicles to Gaza from Britain.

The delegation will attempt to enter Gaza less than a week after Israel seized a boat en route to Gaza through international waters with 21 human rights workers from 11 countries on board. Passengers included Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, 2008 Green Party presidential candidate.

Sacramentan Maggie Coulter visited Gaza earlier this month with a Code Pink Delegation. She and her partner have just returned from 8 months in the Middle East, six of those in living in Palestine.