GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH: Two boatloads of international activists who defied Israel’s blockade of Gaza set sail for Cyprus yesterday, carrying seven Gaza Palestinians who had been confined to the territory. Israel’s navy made no effort to stop the vessels.
Flying Palestinian flags, the boats carried dozens of “Free Gaza” demonstrators away from Gaza’s Mediterranean coastline, following a five-day stay in the impoverished Palestinian territory ruled by the Islamic Hamas.
The two small boats sailed into Gaza last Saturday to protest Israel’s yearlong blockade of Gaza, imposed after the Islamist group Hamas overran the territory. Since then, Israel has allowed only minimal humanitarian supplies to enter, causing severe shortages and hardships.
Also, few Gazans are permitted to leave due to Israeli and Egyptian travel restrictions. Israel’s decision to allow the boats to reach Gaza and then to sail unhindered back to Cyprus was an attempt to deny the protesters a propaganda victory, said an Israeli official.
“If they are just carrying a few Palestinians, that is not a problem,” he said, while adding that the Israeli navy had the right to stop the boats for inspection. As the boats prepared to enter international waters, there were no reports of Israeli naval activity.
The Palestinians on board included a father and his 16-year-old son, who hopes to be fitted with an artificial leg abroad. Protest organizers said the youth lost his leg in an Israeli tank shelling incident. The other Palestinian passengers were a mother and her four children who have residency permits in Cyprus, organizers said.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces operating in West Bank cities yesterday arrested 17 Palestinians including a member of Fatah armed wing, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, who was granted an amnesty by Israeli security authorities. Palestinian security sources said that the Israeli undercover forces arrested Fatah’s Adham Libbadeh during a military operation in West Bank city of Nablus.
Libbadeh was one of dozens of fighters, who belong to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, that were granted amnesty by Israel in accordance with a deal signed with the Palestinian Authority in July 2007. Under the agreement, hundreds of wanted members of the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigades will begin a three-month probation period.
— With input from Mohammed Mar’i
