Gaza City, May 27: The democratically elected Palestinian movement Hamas on Thursday said Israel’s threat to intercept a flotilla of activist aid boats bound for Gaza amounted to “Zionist piracy.”
“The occupation’s threat to prevent the Freedom Flotilla from arriving in the besieged Gaza Strip is Zionist piracy and a violation of international law,” senior Hamas leader Ismail Radwan said in a statement.
“This boasting indicates the terrorist Zionist mentality,” he added, referring to Israel’s vows to intercept the ships, deport the activists and transport the aid supplies to Gaza through its own land crossings.
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists hope to arrive in Gaza over the weekend aboard nine ships loaded with 10,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid and building materials in a bid to highlight Israel’s closure of Gaza’s borders.
“The occupation is concerned about these ships … because they grant legitimacy to engagement with the Palestinian government and confirm that the attempts to isolate Hamas have failed,” Radwan said.
Israel claimed on Wednesday that the flotilla a provocation and that the aid it is carrying is “unnecessary”.
“I don’t see the need for any ship with these materials. We allow these materials into Gaza,” Colonel Moshe Levy told reporters at the Kerem Shalom crossing in reference to the 10,000 tonnes of building materials and other supplies the activists say are aboard a flotilla headed towards Gaza.
“The sail is a provocative act that is unnecessary in light of the figures, which indicate that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is good and stable,” said Levy, who heads the Gaza coordination and liaison office.
Pointing to pallets stacked with cement bound for UN projects, as well as stacks of xerox paper, toilet paper and tea, Levy stressed that Israel allows the transfer of many products to the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Humanitarian agencies say the Israeli embargo amounts to collective punishment of the 1.5 million residents of the overcrowded sliver of land that still bears the scars of a devastating Israeli offensive in January 2009.
Israel has said it will prevent the ships from reaching the Gaza Strip, and authorities have prepared facilities to detain the hundreds of activists aboard the vessels, according to media.
The head of the navy, Vice Admiral Eliezer Marum, “has instructed the forces to operate with the utmost sensitivity and not be drawn into needless provocations,” the source said.
Huwaida Arraf of Free Gaza, one of the groups taking part in the flotilla, said “we will non-violently resist Israeli attempts to seize our boats. Thousands of people have contributed to making this flotilla a reality, and the people of Gaza are expecting us.”
Greta Berlin, another of the organisers, said the boats would seek to evade capture. “We intend to stay at sea and have supplies on board for two months.”
Asked if she feared Israel might arrest all the participants, she said: “You might want to ask the Israelis what they intend to do with 750 civilians.”
Three cargo vessels left from Ireland, Greece and Turkey in recent days and plan to rendezvous with six smaller passenger boats off the coast of Cyprus before steaming on to Gaza where organisers hope to arrive by Saturday.
Last June the Israeli navy intercepted a ship carrying journalists and activists, including Irish Nobel laureate Mairead Maguire, from Cyprus to Gaza and towed it into the southern Israeli port of Ashdod.
The crew and passengers were returned home after being questioned by police.
Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s sole border crossing that bypasses Israel, rarely opens as Egypt is under immense US and Israeli pressure to keep the crossing shut.
—Agencies