Pro-Palestinian flotilla sails towards showdown with Israel

HUNDREDS of pro-Palestinian activists yesterday set sail for the Gaza Strip from international waters off the coast of Cyprus, edging closer to an expected naval showdown with Israeli gunships determined to stop them.

Huwaida Arraf, one of the organisers, said the six-ship flotilla began the journey toward Gaza yesterday afternoon after two days of delays. She said they expected to reach Gaza, about 250 miles (400km) away, this afternoon, and that two more ships are expected to follow in “a second wave”.

She said the flotilla was “fully prepared for the different scenarios” that might arise, and organisers were hopeful that Israeli authorities would “do what’s right” and not stop the convoy.

The flotilla, which includes three cargo ships and three passenger ships, is trying to draw attention to Israel’s three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip. The boats are carrying materials that Israel bars from reaching Gaza, like cement and other building materials. The activists say they are also carrying hundreds of electrically-powered wheelchairs, prefabricated homes and water purifiers.

Some 700 pro-Palestinian activists are also on the boats, including 1976 Nobel peace laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, European legislators and an elderly Holocaust survivor.

Israel and Egypt imposed the blockade on Gaza after Hamas militants violently seized control of the seaside territory in June 2007.

Israel says the measures are needed to prevent Hamas, which has fired thousands of rockets at Israel, from building up its arsenal. But UN officials and international aid groups say the blockade has been counterproductive, failing to weaken Hamas while devastating the local economy. In particular, the ban on building materials has prevented Gazans from repairing thousands of homes damaged or destroyed in an Israeli military offensive to stop Hamas rocket attacks, last year.

Israel rejects claims of a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, saying it allows more than enough food and medicine into the territory. They also point to the bustling smuggling industry along Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, which has managed to bring consumer goods, gasoline and livestock into the strip.

Israel has condemned the flotilla as a provocation and vowed to block it from reaching Gaza.