Palestinians show their support for the "Freedom Flotilla" in Gaza waters on Sunday as an Israeli Navy vessel patrols in the background. (AP)
GAZA CITY: A flotilla of ships carrying activists and aid for the blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday finally steamed south from Cyprus, heading for a confrontation with a fleet of Israeli naval vessels determined to stop them.
The ships, carrying more than 700 passengers, are on the last leg of a high-profile mission to deliver tons of aid to Gaza, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade since 2007.
"We have just left in the last few minutes," Huwaida Arraf, chairman of the Free Gaza Movement, said by telephone from the boat Challenger 1. "Israel is blocking an area about 20 nautical miles out from the Gaza coast and we expect to hit that area in the late morning or early afternoon" on Monday, she said.
In the Gaza Strip, anti-siege activists called on the international community to ensure the protection of the "Freedom Flotilla." "I am asking the international community to protect these boats from the Israeli threat," independent Palestinian MP Jamal Al-Khudari said during a news conference on a boat anchored just outside the Gaza port.
"If Israel blocks them, they have a strategy for getting here," said Al-Khudari, who heads the Gaza-based Committee to Lift the Siege. He did not give details.
With the flotilla expected to approach at some stage over the next 24 hours, Gaza fishermen took to the sea flying Palestinian flags as well as those of Greece, Ireland, Sweden and Turkey — all of which sent boats.
Israel has slammed as "illegal" the convoy's attempt to break its blockade on Gaza, and has naval forces at the ready to intercept the ships and detain the pro-Palestinian activists on board. As tension mounted, several Israeli warships could be seen off the Gaza coast.
Al-Khudari said the flotilla would stop outside Gaza territorial waters before attempting to make landfall.
It will travel "in two stages," he said: "First, they will stop in international waters at 30 nautical miles (from Gaza), and tomorrow (Monday) they will reach the shore."
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that a future Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized to prevent Iran setting up a proxy state in the West Bank. "We must ensure that we achieve a peace that is anchored in security, the only peace that will endure is a peace we can defend," Netanyahu said, speaking to some 7,000 members of Toronto's Jewish community at a pro-Israel rally. "A future Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized."
Netanyahu is on a visit to Canada ahead of a trip to Washington to discuss with US President Barack Obama fragile US-brokered indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has pushed for the talks to focus on security.
Netanyahu said that after previous Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, the areas were taken over by Hezbollah and Hamas.
[Source: Arab News]
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