Two boatloads of pro-Palestinian activists aiming to break an Israeli embargo on the Gaza Strip are hours away from the territorial waters of the Hamas-ruled enclave, organizers said yesterday.
“They are out there. They are two hours away from the point they were aiming for before they enter Gaza territorial waters,” said Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, a Jerusalem-based spokeswoman for the so-called Free Gaza Movement.
“They made very good progress for the night and everyone is fine,” she said, though she added that land-based coordinators were having problems communicating with the boats via on-board satellite phones.
The two converted fishing boats set sail from Cyprus on Friday morning carrying 44 activists determined to break an Israeli embargo that was tightened when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in Gaza in June last year.
Since then Israel has sealed the territory off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to put pressure on Palestinian militants, who have launched hundreds of rockets on southern Israel in the last year.
The boats left from Larnaca port on the island’s south coast to cheers from a small crowd of supporters on a 370km journey that was expected to take up to 30 hours.
The activists expect to be stopped by Israel, which maintains a tight naval blockade around Gaza and has warned the boats not to enter its waters, saying the demonstration would support “the regime of a terror organization.”
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said yesterday that Israel was “following developments” regarding the two boats.
“If they want to make provocations, then we will know how to deal with them,” he said, without elaborating.
Meanwhile several dozen people, mostly reporters, gathered at Gaza City’s main port to await the arrival of the boats, Liberty and Free Gaza, which are sailing under Greek flags and are carrying 200 hearing aids for Gaza children and 5,000 balloons.
Those on board hail from 14 countries including Israel and are aged between 22 and 81, organizers said. Among them are students, lawyers, doctors, journalists and an online poker player.
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