The boats are carrying medicine worth $30,000 A military official has said that the Israeli navy “is prepared to prevent” pro-Palestinian activists from reaching the Gaza Strip in vessels that left Turkey on Wednesday. The two ships, carrying medical aid and activists , set sail from Fethiye on Turkey’s southern coast on Wednesday afternoon and have supposedly planned to arrive in Gaza on Friday in a new bid to break Israel’s blockade of the Strip.
Lieutenant-Colonel Avital Leibovich, speaking to reporters by telephone, would not say how the boats might be stopped, but that Israel was aware two yachts had set sail and added that Israel would offer to deliver to Gaza any aid supplies the activists were carrying.
“We understand that this is once again another provocation in a long line of provocations against the State of Israel,” Avital Leibovitch told the media.
The mini-flotilla, made up of two boats, the Canadian Tahrir and the Irish Saoirse, is reportedly carrying 27 people, including journalists and crew members, along with $30,000 worth of medicines.
Sailing under the flag of the Comoros Islands, the Tahrir is carrying six activists, a captain and five journalists.
The Saoirse - sailing under the US flag - has 12 Irish nationals on board, none of whom are journalists.
“Two civilian boats, the Canadian Tahrir (Liberation), and the Irish Saoirse (Freedom) ... are currently in international waters making their way to the beleaguered Gaza Strip to challenge Israel’s ongoing criminal blockade of the territory,” a statement issued by the Freedom Waves group said.
Freedom Waves kept the voyage secret until now due to accusations in July that Israel tried to sabotage a previous effort, the activists said in a statement.
Activists tried to send another flotilla to Gaza in June, but all nine vessels were stopped. They were intercepted or stopped from leaving port, suffered suspicious damage before sailing, or pulled out amid speculation that their organisers had succumbed to political pressure.
“We have the wind of public opinion at our back and in our sails, which strengthens our resolve and determination to challenge the illegal blockade of Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants,” said Canadian Boat to Gaza organizer Ehab Lotayef.
US-based news channel Democracy Now posted footage of activists on board the Tahrir.
Leibovitch recalled that the U.N.-appointed Palmer committee, which investigated the deaths aboard the Mavi Marmara, had ruled that the maritime blockade of Gaza was legal.
She claimed that Israel sends 300 supply trucks a day to Gaza.
“I fail to understand how two yachts can carry on board any supplies that would compete with the amount of supplies that are entering every day into Gaza,” she said.
Israel has vigorously defended its right to maintain a blockade on Gaza, which it says is necessary to prevent weapons from entering the coastal territory.
Activists organised a major attempt to break Israel’s blockade in May 2010, when a flotilla of ships led by the Turkish Mavi Marmara tried to sail to Gaza.
Israeli naval commandos raided the flotilla, killing nine Turkish activists and sparking a diplomatic crisis that culminated earlier this year in Ankara expelling Israel’s ambassador and suspending military ties with the Jewish state.