BEIRUT, June 21, (Agencies): One of two aid boats planning to sail to Gaza from Lebanon has received the green light to depart for Cyprus on the first leg of a trip that aims to break Israel’s blockade, organisers said on Monday.
“The (Lebanese) transport minister has tentatively agreed to allow us to sail to Cyprus on condition our boat meets standard sailing criteria,” Thaer Ghandour of local non-governmental organisation Journalists Without Limits said.
“We are used to Israeli threats,” Ghandour told AFP. “We will continue to pursue our goal and reaffirm our commitment to humanitarianism.”
While the vessel would also need Cypriot authorisation to depart for Gaza from its shores, organisers have said they may change course before reaching the island and head straight towards the Palestinian territory.
In Cyprus, there was no official comment on Monday on the planned trip.
The ship, originally named “Julia” but now dubbed “Naji al-Ali” after a well-known Palestinian cartoonist, is currently in the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli for inspection.
In defiance of Israeli warnings to Lebanon, organisers are planning to transport aid along with dozens of Lebanese and foreign journalists to the Hamas-controlled territory.
A second ship, the “Mariam”, also plans to carry aid to Gaza in another attempt to break the four-year siege of Gaza with some 50 women-only activists on board, including 30 Lebanese.
The “Mariam” has not yet been given permission to sail.
The women have openly denied any ties to Israel’s enemy Hezbollah, and the Lebanese militant group itself said on Friday that it was not backing the trip because it did not want to give Israel a pretext to attack the activists.
Neither group has announced their date of departure, citing security fears.
Israel came under international censure over its May 31 seizure of a six-ship aid fleet bound for Gaza, in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead by Israeli naval commandos in clashes on the lead boat.
Cyprus refused last month to allow its ports or waters to be used to launch the mission.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Saturday warned the world body that the Jewish state was entitled to use “all necessary force” to stop the Lebanese activists.
A Lebanese freighter which tried to deliver aid to Gaza last year was intercepted by Israeli warships.
Israel’s decision to ease its blockade of Gaza has drawn criticism from Palestinians who say it does not go far enough and Israelis who fear it will strengthen the territory’s Hamas rulers.
Western governments, however, including the United States, have hailed the move as a step in the right direction.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose authority has been confined to the occupied West Bank since Hamas seized power in Gaza and ousted his forces in 2007, insisted Israel must completely lift the four-year-old blockade.
“President Abbas demands the complete lifting of the siege on Gaza,” his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said.
“These steps alone are not sufficient, and all efforts must be exerted to ease the suffering of the people of Gaza,” he added.
Gaza’s Islamist rulers also dismissed Israel’s decision and called for “the complete and genuine lifting of all forms of the blockade.”
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said this must include “the opening of all the crossings and guaranteeing the movement of residents and the entry of all goods, especially industrial and building materials.”
“We want all of Gaza’s needs to be met, including electricity and fuel and the lifting of all banking restrictions, and this is what is not included in the Israeli decision, which means the siege is still in place,” he told AFP.
Hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a parliamentary committee the decision was taken in coordination with the United States and other governments and with international Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair.
“It’s the best decision Israel could take since it takes away Hamas’s main propaganda tool,” Netanyahu said.
“It gives us a legitimate reason in the eyes of our friends in the world to reinforce the security blockade while lifting the civilian blockade,” he added.
But Israeli Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai warned that “the decision to allow the entry of more goods into the Gaza Strip will indirectly help Hamas strengthen its power.”
“Everything that enters Gaza comes under the control of Hamas,” he told public radio.
Environment Minister Gilad Erdan, on the other hand, insisted the blockade had not achieved the desired effect.
“The blockade caused damage to us: it did not enable us to weaken the Hamas power or to speed up the release of Gilad Shalit,” Erdan, who is close to Netanyahu, told army radio.
“One should not cling to principles that bring no profit and for which one has to pay.”
UN Agency
Nothing short of the full lifting of Israel’s blockade on Gaza would allow the territory to be rebuilt, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees said on Monday, a day after Israel said it would ease its siege.
“We need to have the blockade fully lifted,” said spokesman Christopher Gunness of UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency that looks after Palestinian refugees. He spoke to Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in Cairo.
“The Israeli strategy is to make the international community talk about a bag of cement here, a project there. We need full unfettered access through all the crossings.”
The Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators on Monday welcomed Israel’s decision to ease its blockade of Gaza but said the situation in the territory remained “unsustainable and unacceptable”.
In a statement agreed during a conference call, the Quartet — the United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — said Israel’s change of policy towards Gaza was encouraging but said much more needed to be done to alleviate pressure on the Palestinian territory’s population.
“The new policy towards Gaza just announced by the government of Israel is a welcome development,” read a statement agreed after the call, which involved Quartet envoy Tony Blair, US special envoy George Mitchell and EU foreign affairs representative Catherine Ashton, among others.
“Full and effective implementation will comprise a significant shift in strategy towards meeting the needs of Gaza’s population for humanitarian and commercial goods, civilian reconstruction and infrastructure, and legitimate economic activity, as well as the security needs of Israel.”
But the statement added that the “current situation in Gaza, including the humanitarian and human rights situation of the civilian population, is unsustainable, unacceptable, and not in the interests of any of those concerned.”
Meanwhile, the departure of two Iranian aid ships for Gaza has been delayed due to lack of coordination and a change of cargo, a Red Crescent official said on Monday without specifying when the flotilla would leave.
ISNA news agency quoted Mohammad Javad Jafarian, head of the youth wing of Iranian Red Crescent, as saying that the sailing had been delayed and “no definite” date had been set for the departure of the ships to Gaza.
The Iranian Red Crescent had planned to send two aid ships earlier this month and last week even said that the boats were ready and awaiting the approval of the foreign ministry.
The delay has occurred as “the cargo had to be changed in accordance with the World Red Cross specifications and there has been some international lack of coordination,” Jafarian said without elaborating.
In another development, Germany on Sunday slammed Israel for preventing Development Minister Dirk Niebel from entering the Gaza Strip to meet with Palestinian refugees during his current visit to the region.
“I believe that Israel has a need for transparency to render credible the idea that it is changing its political strategy towards Gaza, and my visit would have created that transparency,” Niebel said on German public television station ARD.
Niebel wanted to visit the Hamas-run Palestinian territory Sunday to meet representatives of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a statement in Berlin that he also “regretted” the decision by the Israeli government, and underlined that Germany and the European Union want to see an end to the Gaza blockade.