Egypt detains peaceful protesters in Cairo during anniversary of Israel's war on Gaza

The Egyptian authorities have reportedly stepped up the crackdown on peaceful protests, arresting several protesters as they expressed solidarity with the Palestinian Gaza Strip and Lebanon on Monday, the day marking the first anniversary of the deadly Israeli war on Gaza, sparking an outcry on social media. 

"About a dozen protesters, with no known political affiliation, gathered in the evening while waving the flags of Lebanon and Palestine, shouting anti-Israel slogans and other statements in support of the Palestinian cause and Lebanon near the Nile Corniche [in Cairo's upper-class Zamalek neighbourhood]," a witness told The New Arab.

"Shortly afterwards, security forces dispersed the peaceful gathering and arrested the protesters, mostly women, violently pushing them inside police trucks, and taking them to an undisclosed location," added the witness on condition of anonymity for safety concerns.

The hashtag "the Egyptian police" has gone viral over the past hours with social media activists, denouncing the government's move as they shared a video of part of the protest and the arrest. TNA could not independently verify the authenticity of the clip.

Despite a technical state of peace with Israel since the late 1970s, the Egyptian public has been at loggerheads with their country's successive regimes over normalisation.

Diplomatically and commercially, Cairo has since been treating Tel Aviv as a friendly country with strong ties in several areas, but tensions have skyrocketed after Israel launched its onslaught on Gaza in October last week.

Meanwhile, the fate of Monday's detained activists remains unclear, with no official statements made yet about their whereabouts or any possible charges facing them till the time of publication. Their exact number is uncertain as well.

In a statement released on Tuesday, "the Egyptian Network for Human Rights (ENHR) condemned the arrest of citizens, peacefully expressing their support for the people of occupied Palestine and Lebanon, and their opposition to the war against both nations [Palestine and Lebanon]," demanding their immediate release.

Over the past 12 months, dozens of Egyptian activists have been detained over joining pro-Gaza protests, with many taken via enforced disappearance while others interrogated and accused with terrorism-related charges.

Public protests have mostly been banned in Egypt without a prior security permit since the military under the then-defence minister Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi seised power in 2013.

Local and international human rights groups have frequently accused Sisi's regime of overlooking the worst human rights record witnessed in the modern history of the North African country.

Almost 60,000 political prisoners and dissidents are believed to be currently behind bars in Egypt; many of them are allegedly held without standing a fair trial, while others are kept in solitary confinement and are reportedly denied access to proper healthcare.