A pro-Palestinian activist who was filmed dropping to his knees and crying in front of Egyptian police in an effort to enter Gaza has been identified as a Welsh nurse.
A clip of paramedic Leigh Evans emotionally pleading with a line of riot police began circulating online on Friday and went viral over the weekend.
In the video, Evans claims he previously spent time working as a nurse in Gaza, saying: “I can’t explain to you the horror, I can’t explain to you the smell of starving babies.”
Elsewhere he can be heard calling the police his “brothers” and appealing to them to “allow us to stand for Falesteen [the Arabic pronunciation of ‘Palestine’]”.
Later Evans, who identifies himself as a pacifist, says: “This is a genocide of a Muslim people by Zionists... I saw them shooting pregnant women, Muslim women. These people aren’t Muslims that are doing this.”
It turns out that this is far from the first time that he has made headlines.
In 2018, Evans appeared on local news site Wales Online, after he stopped, while off-duty, to help a woman who had been hit by a car in Swansea town centre, using his dog, Alan, to keep her distracted while they waited for emergency services to arrive.
A year later, in 2019, he was featured on ITV Wales’ Coast & Country in a segment about his love of sea swimming, talking about how it helps him cope with the stress of being a frontline medic.
In the video, he says: “Almost every day I see someone pass away, whether it be traumatically or from illness, or simply because they’ve reached the end of their life.
“We do compartmentalise a lot of things, especially the trauma, but it does come to the surface.”
Evans was one of an estimated 4,000 activists from 80 countries who joined the Global March to Gaza, aiming to enter the war zone through the heavily fortified Rafah border, which it shares with Egypt.
However, on reaching Cairo, the activists were shocked to be met with hostility, with a number of videos emerging which appeared to show them being attacked by locals and held back by armed police, as well as reports of their passports being confiscated.
Alexis Deswaef, a Belgian human rights lawyer who joined the trip, said: “I am so surprised to see the Egyptians doing the dirty work of Israel.”
Meanwhile, when an Arabic-speaking woman explains to Evans that the police are waiting for orders and don’t have a choice when it comes to letting him pass, he responds: “They don’t have to follow the orders, they can allow us to stand for Falesteen.”
Later, adding: “You do have a choice, you’re humans. We’re here for humanity, you are part of humanity. You are my brother.”
As well as an enthusiastic sea swimmer, Evans is also a master black belt in Tai Chi and qualified as a World Taiji Boxing Association (WTBA) instructor.
Sharing a video of Evans in Egypt on YouTube, a WTBA contact wrote: “This is Leigh Evans, a long time friend of the Montaigue [sic] family and senior WTBA representative. He is a Welsh nurse and is trying to cross the boarder from Egypt into Gaza to deliver aid to the people.
“Please share this like crazy!!! I don't want my friend to be shot out there and have it all covered up. The media will only show you what they want you to see. This here is the truth of what is happening.”
