Aid ship sets sail for besieged Gaza, bracing for Israeli blockade

The Mavi Marmara will join two other Turkish ships in Antalya before departing for Gaza on Tuesday. The ships are expected to get to Gaza later this month. They will meet up with two British, one Greek, one Irish, one Algerian and one Kuwaiti ship in international waters. The nine-ship “Freedom Flotilla” convoy is expected to sail to Gaza within 24 hours of meeting up if they are not blocked by Israel.

The convoy, arranged by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, is considered the boldest attempt by international aid groups to break the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip. The coalition comprises the Free Gaza Movement (FG), a human rights group that in August 2008 sent the first international boats to land in the Port of Gaza in 41 years, the Turkey-based Humanitarian Aid Foundation (İHH), the European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG), Ship to Gaza Greece, Ship to Gaza Sweden and the International Committee to Lift the Siege on Gaza.

Delivering a speech at the ceremony, Bülent Yıldırım, the president of the İHH, the organization which arranged Mavi Marmara’s departure, suggested that Israel has been “committing a silent genocide” in Gaza.

The ships sailing off to Gaza solely carry humanitarian aid material, Yıldırım said, adding: “There will not even be a jackknife on these ships. These ships will carry only aid materials. If Israel attempts to shoot this ship, then it will be shooting humanity.”

In Israel, Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed an order closing off the zone 20 nautical miles from the Gaza shoreline. The defense establishment said the navy would prevent the fleet from arriving at the Port of Gaza, but added that for operational reasons, they would not say where the ships would be intercepted, English-language Israeli daily Haaretz reported over the weekend.

“Naval sources said they were concerned that people on board would initiate a provocation that would lead to a shooting incident or violence for the sake of media attention. The Israel Navy crews have been briefed on preventing a decline into violence. There is also concern that Gazans will try to take dozens of their boats out to sea to meet the aid ships. The navy is expected to act to keep the two groups separate,” Haaretz said.

Earlier in the weekend, the Israeli media reported that an Israeli flotilla set off from the shores of Herzliya in response to the pro-Palestinian convoy. The banners the Israeli ships carried noted Gaza rocket fire toward Israel and displayed photos of captured Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, the reports said.

The Palestinian territory has been under a tightened Israeli and Egyptian economic blockade since 2007 when the Hamas movement took over the territory after being elected in the 2006 elections. The blockade was enforced to put pressure on Hamas and to stop weapons being smuggled in.

A report released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) on Sunday said about three-quarters of the damage inflicted by Israel’s war on Gaza more than a year ago has not been repaired.

Israel continues to bar construction materials from entering Hamas-ruled Gaza as part of the overall blockade of the territory. The UNDP said Gazans have carried out small-scale repairs worth $173 million with recycled rubble or material smuggled through border tunnels. The report also said the international community has been largely sidelined in the reconstruction effort. The UN can do little because it refrains from buying smuggled goods. Israel says it bans construction materials to prevent them from being used by Hamas for military purposes.

The ongoing humanitarian tragedy in Gaza is at the center of tension in relations between Turkey and Israel. Turkey, a member of the NATO defense pact, has a history of military cooperation with Israel and of mediating for the Jewish state with the Arab world. But ties have been shaken by harsh and public criticism from both sides, culminating in Jerusalem in January in a televised reprimand of Turkey’s outgoing Ambassador Oğuz Çelikkol.

Ankara says a return to normal bilateral relations is conditional on concrete steps by Israel to end the months-long humanitarian tragedy in Gaza as well as a sign of willingness to revive peace efforts in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, a decree appointing Çelikkol back to Ankara was published in the Official Gazette, and thus went into force, on Saturday. According to the same decree, Çelikkol will be replaced by Kerim Uras, a young diplomat with expertise on Cyprus affairs.