Madison-Rafah Journal

Two veiled women wave to fellow Palestinians who boarded a boat off the coast of Gaza City (AFP)

AFP, 24 August 2008

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Two boats from Cyprus carrying 44 pro-Palestinian activists docked in the Gaza Strip on Saturday after Israel allowed them through its tight blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

The boats set sail on Friday from the east Mediterranean island carrying activists from 17 countries, including Israel, determined to highlight the blockade of Gaza where the Islamist Hamas movement has ruled since June 2007.

The boats sailed through choppy grey seas and into Gaza City's main port, where they were greeted by thousands of people waving Palestinian flags, many of them motoring around the harbour in boats.

Crowds lining the shore chanted "God is great!" and "No, no, to the siege!" as dozens of young men dived into the murky waters of the harbour and swam towards the flag-decked boats.

"This is a great victory in breaking the siege and the beginning of what we hope will be more and more boats," said Riad al-Faraj, the Gaza-based head of the International Committee to Break the Siege, which helped organise the trip.

Islam Shahwan, a spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run security forces, said 500 policemen had been deployed to protect the activists.

"We will provide protection for them and will take them to visit Al-Shifa hospital and other parts of Gaza City," he said.

The activists appeared tired from the voyage and at least two were taken to Al-Shifa to be treated for exhaustion, but all said they were happy to be in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people.

"I am very happy to have arrived in Gaza," Edith Lutz, a 59-year-old activist from Germany said. "We came to help the Palestinian people in Gaza to lift the siege."

Israel had initially warned the activists to stay away from Gaza's coastal waters, saying the voyage would support "the regime of a terror organisation," but in the end allowed them to pass through without incident.

"They wanted provocation at sea but they won't get it. We know who the passengers are and what they are bringing with them and so we have no problem letting them through," foreign ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron told AFP.

Angela Godfrey-Goldstein, a Jerusalem-based spokeswoman for the so-called Free Gaza Movement which organised the event, said the boats' communications systems had been attacked by "electronic piracy" earlier in the day.

An attempt by a third boat carrying reporters from the Israeli port of Ashdod to meet the two vessels failed because of the communications problems, Godfrey-Goldstein said.

Earlier in the day around 20 Gaza fishing boats flying Palestinian flags left Gaza City's main port in a bid to welcome the two blockade runners, but were turned back when Israeli gunships in the distance fired warning shots.

Israel has tightened its blockade of Gaza since Hamas seized power in June 2007, sealing the territory off from all but vital humanitarian aid in a bid to put pressure on Palestinian militants who have fired hundreds of rockets at southern Israel in the past year.

Abubakr Nofal, a senior Hamas member, said the voyage was a "strong message to the Arab people and to Arab leaders," and called on them to pressure the United States and Israel to lift the blockade.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas called delegation member Huwaida Arraf and told her he hoped this was "a first step for the international community to end the suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza," his office said.

The boats, Liberty and Free Gaza, had embarked on the 370-kilometre (230-mile) voyage from Larnaca port on Cyprus's south coast and carried 200 hearing aids for Gaza children and 5,000 balloons.

The activists were between aged 22 and 81, organisers said, and among them were students, lawyers, doctors, journalists and an online poker player.

Mostly American and British, they include Lauren Booth, sister-in-law of former British premier Tony Blair who is now an international Middle East peace envoy.

Many of the activists said they had received death threats before they set sail, and some demonstrators dropped out.

Copyright © 2008 AFP