KUWAIT CITY, June 22: “We in Kuwait are ready for a second showdown and 50 Kuwaiti activists will be aboard the aid ship that will try to break the blockade and deliver supplies to people in the Gaza Strip,” says President of the International Committee for Aid to Palestine Dr Waleed Al-Anjari. Speaking to the Arab Times, Al-Anjari said they have two plans to reach Gaza. “Firstly, we are planning a road trip to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing from Egypt. However, we are still waiting for the Egyptian government’s approval which hopefully we will get in two days.”

“We have prepared four trucks full of medicines and medical equipment and we have taken enough money with us to buy all the needed food for Palestinians in Gaza. This trip is being organized by the Kuwaiti Aid Committee,” he added. “Only two people from Kuwait will go and we have also arranged for a representative from the Kuwait Embassy in Egypt to accompany us when we arrive in Rafah,” said Al-Anjari, adding “this will, however, be possible only if the Egyptian government gives us the approval and hopefully it will.”

Speaking on the second international flotilla to Gaza, Al-Anjari stated that this time, 50 activists from Kuwait will be joining. “We have hundreds of applications from people who want to join this peaceful and humanitarian mission, including many from those who attended the first aid trip, but we are going to take only 50 people,” he added. “The flotilla will be leaving by the beginning of August. We don’t have the exact date right now, but we are hoping it will take place before Ramadan to make it easier for everyone,” he noted.

“We hope this time our peaceful mission will end in a peaceful way. We wish no confrontation takes place because that is not our intention. Our only intention is to break the blockade and provide food and medicines to people of Gaza,” he emphasized.

Meanwhile, Iran said Tuesday it would send a blockade-busting ship carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza, fueling concern in Israel, where commandos were training for another possible confrontation at sea.
Israel warned archenemy Iran to drop the plan. The Iranian announcement came days after Israel eased its three-year-old blockade of Gaza under international pressure following its deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last month.

“No one in their right mind can believe that a ship sent by the ayatollahs and their Revolutionary Guards has anything to do with humanitarian aid,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor. “I don’t think there is one single country in this region and beyond that would let such an ayatollah ship come near its coasts.”
Security officials said the prospect of an Iranian boat headed for Gaza had Israel deeply worried, and that naval commandos were training for the possibility of taking on a vessel with a suicide bomber on board. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose operational details.
Egypt had joined Israel in blockading Gaza, but it opened its land crossing with the territory indefinitely after the May raid to let thousands of Palestinians through. Egyptian transportation official Mohammad Abdelwahab suggested his country was ready to back off the naval blockade as well.
He said Egypt would not prevent the Iranian ship from passing through the Suez Canal, a strategic passageway that connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea that Gaza borders.
“As long as the ship is not at war with Egypt and doesn’t pollute the air, water or land, then it will be allowed to cross,” Abdelwahab said.

Iran’s state television reported that an Iranian ship called “Infants of Gaza” would sail Sunday for Gaza carrying 1,100 tons of relief supplies and 10 pro-Palestinian activists.
The Chairmen of the Arab group, Libya, of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Syria, and that of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Egypt, late Monday called for the “immediate and unconditional” lifting of the blockade on Gaza and for the holding of an international inquiry into the Israeli fatal raid on the Mavi Marmara aid ship that left nine Turks dead on May 31.
The calls came in a joint letter the chairmen sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the Security Council President Claude Heller of Mexico, and the President of the General Assembly Ali Treki.
Meanwhile, Lebanon said on Tuesday it would hold Israel responsible for any attack, in response to Israeli warnings that it would use “all necessary force” to stop aid boats planning to sail to blockaded Gaza.
“Israel will be held fully responsible for any attack on Lebanon,” the foreign ministry said in a letter to the United Nations.

Lebanon “can not prohibit a ship from leaving its ports if its cargo, passengers and destination all comply with Lebanese law,” it said in the letter.
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations warned the world body last week that the Jewish state was entitled to use “all necessary force” to stop the Lebanese activists’ boats.
On Monday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak also reiterated a warning that Lebanon would be responsible for any “violent and dangerous confrontation” with vessels sailing to Gaza from its shores.
In defiance of the Israeli warnings, Lebanese civilian groups are still planning to transport aid, including medical supplies, by sea to the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory via Cyprus.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Tuesday issued a fresh call to lift the Gaza blockade for the sake of its residents, saying it was too early to assess Israel’s decision to ease the siege.
Filippo Grandi was reacting to Israel’s decision on Sunday to allow all strictly “civilian” goods into Gaza while preventing weapons and certain dual-use items from entering the impoverished strip.
“It is too premature to say. It is very difficult to comment on whether this will lead to significant changes ... We cannot tell you yet,” Grandi told reporters in Cairo.

He was neither “optimistic nor pessimistic” but underlined the need to let goods into the Gaza Strip to help with reconstruction. “The opportunity now is to finally end the blockade on Gaza,” he said.
Japan, one of the biggest aid donors to the Palestinians, said it welcomed Israel’s announcement it would ease its blockade of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
“The government of Japan welcomes the Israeli government’s decision to allow civilian goods to enter the Gaza strip as a measure in the right direction and will pay close attention to how this decision will be implemented in detail,” the foreign ministry said in a statement late Monday.
Israel’s defense minister on Monday urged the UN chief to shelve plans for a UN-backed independent investigation of a deadly Israeli commando raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla last month.
Speaking to reporters after he met with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he told Ban the United Nations should suspend plans to set up an inquiry into Israel’s May 31 interception of a six-ship convoy heading to the Gaza Strip, in which nine Turks died.
“We expressed our view that for the time being, as long as ... new flotillas are in the preparation, it’s probably better to leave it (a UN investigation) on the shelf for a certain time,” Barak said.