Thursday 5 August 2010

Freedom Flotilla 2 to sail to Gaza before yearend

[ 05/08/2010 - 08:08 AM ]

STOCKHOLM, (PIC)-- Organizers of the Freedom Flotilla that was attacked by Israeli navy forces in international waters while trying to reach Gaza with relief aid on board said they plan another flotilla by the yearend.

Dror Feiler, the spokesman for the Swedish branch of the pro Palestinian "Ship for Gaza" movement, said in a press release, "We will send a new fleet if the Israeli siege on the Strip was not lifted".

He said, after a meeting for the movement on Wednesday in Stockholm, that the flotilla would be larger than the previous one with more and bigger ships.

Feiler, himself a Jew, said that those sailing on board the Freedom Flotilla 2 will not accept Israeli inspection or monitoring of the ships.

Meanwhile, Israel announced on Thursday that it would return all eight ships of the Freedom Flotilla to Turkey.

The Israeli war ministry said in a statement that it would return the ships along with the personal belongings of the international solidarity activists who were on board the vessels when the Israeli navy attacked and commandeered their ships to Ashdod.

The ships were carrying aid and relief material to the besieged Gaza Strip. The ministry did not say what would be the fate of the aid shipments.

Nine Turkish activists were killed and dozens others wounded during the Israeli bloody raid in international waters on May 31st.

Israel had refused to release those ships after their owners refused to sign a pledge not to try again to break the blockade on Gaza.

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