A small flotilla of four boats which set sail two days ago carrying humanitarian aid is expected to enter the waters near the Gaza strip sometime
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A small flotilla of four boats which set sail two days ago carrying humanitarian aid is expected to enter the waters near the Gaza strip sometime today. But Israel has warned it will not allow its blockade to be broken.
Euronews’s Luis Carballo has gone to Jerusalem to discover how the flotilla is being viewed by locals.
“This new flotilla heading to Gaza has all the ingredients to provoke a new dispute in Israel. We have talked to both Israelis and Palestinians here in Jerusalem. The Palestinians complain of the lack of humanity being shown by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in not allowing the flotilla to enter the Strip. Many Israelis have told us that allowing this aid into Gaza would be the same as giving it directly to Hamas,” said our reporter.
“Israel has signed many agreements for letting in aid going back 40 years or more even before the government of Netanyahu, before Olmert, before even Begin and Rabin, and they just don’t care at all about it,” said one Palestinian.
An Israeli, however, was convinced the aid was not necessary: “I think the people in Gaza have all the humanitarian aid that they need and the Israeli government lets in tons of humanitarian aid. The difference is that this flotilla wants to go in without the Governments approval and we are afraid that the aid, instead of going to the people, will go to the terrorists, which happens all the time.”
While the flotilla organisers stress the initiative is a non-violent venture, Israeli Navel forces are expected to intercept it at some point probably towing the boats into the Israeli port of Ashdod..