EL ARISH, Egypt: Egyptian police yesterday thwarted an attempt by activists to break the blockade of the Gaza Strip, stopping trucks full of supplies from crossing Egypt’s border, activists and police said.

Police detained leading activists in the border town of Rafah and in Cairo, where a bus was about to leave for the border from in front of the Journalists Syndicate, a popular gathering point for demonstrations.

The detainees include prominent activists Magdi Ahmed Hussein in Rafah and Mohamed Abdel Qaddous in Cairo, as well as at least 20 others, the sources said.

Hussein was part of a small advance party, which slipped past police and reached Rafah. Police raided beach chalets in the north Sinai town of El Arish looking for other members of the anti-blockade campaign, security sources said.

The organizers had prepared trucks loaded with supplies but none of them was able to cross the Suez Canal, which divides the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt, the sources added.

Hussein told Reuters by telephone that he and 17 others had reached the Rafah crossing point but police detained him and five of his colleagues. The others escaped, he added.

Police prevented a similar attempt by activists to take supplies to Gaza on Sept. 10.

The Egyptian government cooperates in the Israeli blockade, which is meant to undermine support among Gaza Palestinians for Hamas, which runs the territory.

But many Egyptians, especially among Hamas’ allies in the opposition Muslim Brotherhood, oppose the government’s policy.