Libyan ship carrying Gaza supplies ordered back

By IBRAHIM BARZAK
Associated Press

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – The Israeli navy on Monday turned away a Libyan ship heading to Gaza with 3,000 tons of humanitarian aid, ending the most high-profile effort yet to break a blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory.

The Al Marwa was approaching the Gaza coast when it was stopped by an Israeli navy vessel. The navy vessel ordered the Libyan ship via radio to turn back, said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, adding that no force was used.

In Gaza’s small port, spectators, journalists and dozens of porters had assembled to await the arrival of the Libyan ship.

Link HERE for the rest of the story via MSNBC.

Additional information indicated that the Al Marwa was going to dock in an Egyptian port and that there would be an attempt to deliver its humanitarian cargo to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which is controlled by Egypt. By this latest report, it is not clear that that is happening.

Israel’s blockade of Gaza has reportedly led to the deaths of 261 medical patients in need of treatment outside of Gaza, but who were prevented from leaving.

That the Israeli navy continues to control the Gaza coast merely shows that the siege of Gaza is just an extension of the military occupation that Israel has exerted in the Palestinian territories for over 40 years.

This Libyan chapter in the Gaza siege is still developing and further information may be available later in the day.

Last week, Arab foreign ministers issued a joint statement in Cairo that their governments would send food and medicine to Gaza. They said they would coordinate with Egypt to ensure the supplies enter Gaza, suggesting they would take the land route, rather than confronting Israelis at sea. Egypt has otherwise kept the Rafah crossing with Gaza closed most of the time.


The following is the previous reporting on this story:

Syria and Turkey to follow Kaddafi’s lead to rescue the Gazan Palestinians

Regarding these latest events concerning Israel’s siege of Gaza, one can’t help but to repeat the words of the great Brooklyn actor, William Bendix: what a revoltin’ development dis’ is!

The scary Islamic world, in the form of Arab nations no less, have entered the Gaza saga acting like a bunch of damned humanitarians, while Israel, its great friend, the US, and its partners, the EU and Russia, the so-called Quartet, are acting…well, how can one put it in a polite manner: like a bunch of fucking…sorry, the proper word just won’t come.

This news was reported by numerous sources including Middle East, US and British newspapers (Google Libya Gaza, too many to quote all).

Gaza Strip, 25, November, 2008

In a prompt press release issued a few hours ago, Chairman of Popular Committee Against Siege PCAS, Jamal El Khoudary announced that a Libyan ship (officially) sailed this evening shipped with 3 thousand tons of humanitarian and medical aids.

Upon a call with Libyan officials Tuesday evening, El Khoudary said the ship is presented from the Libyan State and its people in coordination with the Libyan foreign affairs ministry.

He added that this ship is number one and it would be followed  by tens of other ships in case of getting today’s trip succeeded.

This work came out after considerable coordination exerted by PCAS in the past days. It would be considered the first practical Arabian stance to end the inhuman siege imposed on Gaza.

The recent situation in Gaza is gloomy as Israel fools the mainstream with its closed crossings saying she has reopened them yesterday. Around 70% of Gaza still plunges into deep darkness while fears arose the water is being contaminated across Gaza.

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said that Gaza crossings will remain closed.

Source: www.freegaza.ps

The donation of “humanitarian” aid is reportedly being made by the Libyan Fund for Aid and Development in Africa and is made up of 500 tons of oil; 750 tons of milk; 1,207 tons of rice; 500 tons of wheat flour and 100 tons of various drugs.

The ship is due to arrive in Gaza in one week after departure (last Tuesday, November 25).

Within the past 24 hours, it was reported that other Arab countries, taking their lead from Kaddafi are getting into the humanitarian act:

Syria says to join with Turkey in sending aid to Gaza.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan plan to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli blockade, the Syrian ruling Baath party’s mouthpiece daily said on Thursday.

The two leaders also agreed, in a telephone call, to work towards pressuring Israel to end the blockade of the impoverished Palestinian enclave which it imposed when the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June last year, the Al-Baath newspaper said.

Israel tightened its blockade after a November 4 surge in violence and has allowed food into Gaza only three times since. The border crossings which are the sole gateway for goods for the territory’s 1.5 million people were closed again on Thursday.

Assad and Erdogan agreed to “work towards sending humanitarian aid urgently to the Palestinian people in Gaza and affirmed the need for combined international efforts to break the blockade,” the paper said.

Is the world turned upside down? I thought the US and Israel were the good guys. Live and learn.

UPDATE: The ball is rolling!

Arab Foreign Ministers to Dispatch Instant Aid to Gaza

CAIRO, November 28, 2008 (WAFA)- The Arab Ministers of Foreign Affairs, who had held, Wednesday, an extraordinary session, decided to dispatch food supplies, medicines and medical equipment to Gaza immediately.

In a statement, published Wednesday Arab Foreign Ministers decided to dispatch instant food and medical aid to Gaza and to receive patients from the Palestinian people.

It mandated the secretariat of the League of Arab States to coordinate with the concerned Egyptian and Jordanian authorities to secure the entry of food, medicines and medical equipment into the Gaza Strip.

Source: AJP

UPDATE II: Latest (excerpted) news from the Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald this morning (November 30):

Israeli officials were also mulling what action to take against a Libyan cargo ship laden with almost 3,000 tonnes of goods that was headed to the Gaza Strip after weighing anchor on Wednesday.

It is the first time a foreign government has attempted to break the Israeli blockade, although pro-Palestinian activists have since August made three trips from Cyprus without being intercepted by the Israeli navy.

Israeli officials were also mulling what action to take against a Libyan cargo ship laden with almost 3,000 tonnes of goods that was headed to the Gaza Strip after weighing anchor on Wednesday.

It is the first time a foreign government has attempted to break the Israeli blockade, although pro-Palestinian activists have since August made three trips from Cyprus without being intercepted by the Israeli navy.

“A ship like that is capable of carrying weapons no less than what was on the Karine A weapons boat that was seized,” a security official told the Maariv newspaper in reference to a ship intercepted by the navy in 2002 and found to be transporting 50 tons of weaponry to Gaza.

“From our perspective, it is a hostile ship that left from an enemy country and we will treat it accordingly,” added the unidentified official.

The official said it had been a mistake to let in the boats carrying pro-Palestinian activists.

“We should have stopped those ships,” he said. “The humane behaviour displayed by the foreign ministry is liable to end up sending terrorists or weaponry into Gaza by means of assistance ships of these kinds.”

Defence Minister Ehud Barak was to consult with the foreign ministry before deciding what action to take, the Maariv newspaper said.