Sudan official: Gaza is free territory

Kottby el-Mahdy, former adviser to the Sudanese President, has defended a recent visit to the Gaza Strip, telling Arabstoday the delegation was an unofficial display of solidarity following November’s Israeli attack on the coastal region. “The visit’s aim was to ease the damages and suffering endured by residents of the Gaza Strip following the Israeli attack,” el-Mahdy claimed. The design of the trip was to express solidarity with the Palestinian people “as a whole,” he added, and not to prejudice any one faction. El-Mahdy meanwhile expressed his country’s support behind Palestine\'s interfactional reconciliation, in efforts to confront the Israeli occupation. “The Sudanese delegation discussed how the country’s public role could assist reconciliation with Palestinian officials,” he said. “This delegation visited Gaza because it is a liberated territory that has no relation with Israel,” he claimed. “Every Sudanese citizen hopes to visit the West Bank after the Israeli occupation.” The Sudanese delegation meanwhile provided medical supplies to Gazan hospitals, to help treat those injured during Israel’s November assault.