Galway women trapped in Gaza

Date Published: 08-Feb-2008

A Galway mother and daughter are waiting on tenterhooks to see if they can get out of Palestine after they were refused permission to leave the Gaza Strip by Egyptian border guards this week.

Treasa Ni Cheannabhain and her 19-year old daughter, Naisrin, entered Gaza illegally after Hamas militants tore down the border wall between Egypt and Palestine last weekend.

After Egyptian border guards resealed the border on Sunday, they found that they were not allowed back into Egypt following an eight hour stand-off at the Rafah crossing on Tuesday night.

Thousands of Palestinians had used the breached border to stock up on supplies and meet up with family membersin the Sinai peninsula when the Galway women sneaked into Gaza last Saturday.

Ms Ni Cheannabhain and her daughter, who are members of the Galway branch of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, travelled to Gaza to bring financial support to orphanages and hospitals which are suffering due to the Israeli blockade.

They took a ………..