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The head of the International Committee for the Siege of Gaza (ICBSG), Zaher Birawi, announced that a flotilla of ships to cross the Israeli siege was crossing Egyptian waters on Saturday night and should reach Gaza's territorial waters as soon as possible. Sunday night.
Birawi did not specify the number of ships sailing in the flotilla, although the activists are sailing to Gaza on boats coming from a wide range of countries.
It is expected that the Israeli Navy will not allow ships to reach shore in Gaza, according to local media reports.
Ships, which bear names such as "al-Awda" ("Return"), "Freedom" & # 39; and & Palestine, took about two months to reach anywhere. the ports of Gaza, after stopping in several cities of Europe
Al-Awda and Liberty left Italy a week ago and "are on the verge of d & # 39; To complete the last leg of their journey to Gaza. " Website of the Flotilla Coalition. [19659002] The boats carry Australian, Canadian, French, German, Israeli, Malaysian, New Zealand, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, British and American nationals, including several prominent figures and eminent activists.
on the four boats sailing in the Freedom Flotilla 2018.
The ships carry for 13,000 euros medical equipment collectively collected by the coalition, its partner ICBSG, and other national solidarity groups involved.
The Egyptian blockade on Gaza began in 2007, when Hamas took control of the Palestinian Authority, to prevent military equipment and artillery from reaching elements. terrorists like the Brigades Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the military wing of Hamas. 19659002] The blockade has been criticized by various humanitarian groups and the UN, organizations which, like the Red Cross, call the blockade a "collective punishment" imposed on the people of Gaza . The World Bank points out that industries such as the manufacturing sector have declined by almost 60%, helping nearly half of the labor force to be unemployed.
This is not the first time that a flotilla goes to Gaza The last time, two years ago, 13 women, including Mairead Maguire, pacifist activist from Northern Ireland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1976, were detained 35 nautical miles from the capital. The Gaza coast on the "women's boat to Gaza" and then evicted.
The most infamous example of an attempt to break the blockade dates from 2010, when a Turkish ship called the Mavi Marmara attempted to reach the Gaza coast. Ten militants were killed in a violent confrontation following the Israeli commandos' embarkation in the flotilla
Israeli raid on the flotilla Gaza, organized by a charity with close ties to the Turkish government, triggered a collapse of relations between the two countries.
It took six years for Turkey and Israel to return their respective ambassadors to Tel Aviv and Ankara.
But the fragile Israel-Turkey relationship In May, Ankara condemned the deaths of 60 Palestinians in clashes on the Gaza border as a "massacre", removed its ambassador from Israel and expelled the envoy from Israel a day later.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after accusing Israel of "state terror" and "genocide" for the killing of dozens of Gazans during clashes on the border
. As two leaders, Turkey maintains full commercial ties with the Jewish state established in the 2016 reconciliation agreement that ended the Mavi Marmara conflict.
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