The “European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza,” one of the founders of the coalition’s fleet of “Freedom”, said that the Greek-Swedish cargo ship, which was loaded with humanitarian aid to Gaza, was launched in the early hours of Tuesday morning (25 / 5), after a delay for several hours because of technical constraints, while the rest of the European ships will start moving today to join the fleet of “Freedom” in Cyprus.

The campaign explained in a statement today: “The European cargo ship suffered a delay in its launch for several hours because of the need to end some routine procedural things in loading the humanitarian aid, four other ships are scheduled to start moving today afternoon from the ports of Athens and Crete, and to head to the port of Greek island of Rhodes in the southeastern part of Greece, and then reach off the coast of Cyprus to meet the three ships which left from Antalya, Turkey.

The European campaign indicated that after that delay of the European cargo ship’s movement would make the date of the whole fleet’s sailing to the Gaza Strip on next Thursday, which is expected to arrive to the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, if all goes without any restrictions by the Israeli authorities. The postponement in the sailing of three Algerian, Turkish and Kuwaiti ships from Antalya to Wednesday, so that the ships will be able to meet the rest of ships that sailed from Greece, as well as to catch the Irish ship (Rachel Corrie).

Aingus Sadiag, a member of the Irish Parliament, said that all peace activists participating in the fleet of “Freedom” are determined to access to the Gaza Strip, taking into account all the possibilities that they may be submitted to by the Israeli side, including staying for long periods at sea till they allow them access into the Gaza Strip and to deliver more than ten thousand tons of aid loaded on big nine vessels.

Sadiag warned the Israeli authorities from committing any folly actions against the humanitarian fleet of “Freedom”, stressing that this has its consequences, the fact that the fleet carries at least tens of European parliamentarians and international activists from over sixty countries, holding Tel Aviv accountable of full responsibility for any harm that might affect the fleet’s crew.

The fleet of “Freedom” consists of nine ships which are: A cargo ship funded by Kuwait raising the flag of Turkey and Kuwait, A cargo ship funded by Algeria, and a cargo ship funded by Europe from Sweden and Greece, and 6 vessels to transport passengers; one of the boats is named “boat 8000” taking after the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The fleet settled with carrying 750 participants from more than 60 countries, although it had received dozens of requests for participation. Meanwhile 44 governmental, parliamentary, political, European, and Arab officials will be among the participants in the fleet, including ten Algerian MEPs.

The ships of fleet also carry more than 10 thousand tons of medical supplies, building materials, timber, 100 prefab houses to shelter tens of thousands of people who lost their homes during the Israeli war on Gaza in early 2009, it also carries 500 electric vehicles for the handicapped, especially since the recent war that left nearly 600 disabled people in Gaza.

For more info:

The European Campaign to end the siege on Gaza

[email protected]

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