AFP/Doha
Doha-based Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi said he will lead a delegation of clerics next week on a support visit to Hamas-ruled Gaza, a local daily reported yesterday.
Qaradawi will travel to Gaza on May 8 along with a delegation of the Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars, he told Al Arab daily.
The aim of the three-day trip to the Palestinian territory is to “support its people and participate in lifting the blockade against them”, he said.
It also “sends a message to its people that stresses that we support their steadfastness and stand by them”. The delegation will travel on a chartered plane to El-Arish, in Egypt’s Sinai, and cross by land to Gaza through the Rafah border point.
HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani visited Gaza in October last year. He was warmly welcomed on the landmark tour, during which he inaugurated a multimillion dollar rebuilding project.