Israel has issued a tough warning against a group of pro-Palestinian activists who are trying to break an Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip by boat, local daily The Jerusalem Post reported Friday.
The 46 human rights and peace activists from 17 countries, aboard two boats respectively named the Free Gaza and the Liberty, left a southern Cypriot port earlier Friday, and are expected to reach the Gazan waters Saturday.
The mission is aimed to crack what the activists call the "Israeli siege on the strip," and to deliver medical aids to residents of the poverty-stricken enclave, said the organizer, the California-based Free Gaza Movement, on Wednesday.
However, the newspaper on Friday quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron as saying that the planned delivery of medical aids was a "provocation" that Israel could not allow. He added that "all options" were under consideration, without elaborating.
Earlier this week, the ministry said in a letter to the organizer that the Israeli government "assumes that your intentions are good," but "the result of your action is that you are supporting the regime of a terrorist organization in Gaza."
The letter suggested that the activists deliver the supplies via the land crossing points, while warning that otherwise, it proves that their goal "is political and constitutes the legitimization of a terrorist organization."
Local media earlier reported the Israeli navy had been ordered to turn back the two boats and that Israeli military may use force to block them, amid worries that allowing the ships to reach the Gazan coastline would set a dangerous precedent.
The Jewish state tightened its restrictions on the Palestinian enclave since Hamas, a group Israel blacklists as a terrorist organization, seized control of the area last year from the long-dominant Fatah faction. The land border, sea and air of the strip are currently all under Israeli control.
Source: Xinhua
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