A flotilla seeking to challenge Israel's maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip is currently some 150 miles from its destination and may arrive off the enclave's shores late Sunday afternoon.
According to French news agency AFP, a three-vessel flotilla left Palermo, Sicily, on July 21. One of the smaller ships participating in the sail had to turn back due to mechanical failure, but the lead vessel, the Awda ("Return" in Arabic), was set to arrive off Gaza's shores by Sunday or Monday, Pierre Stambul, the co-president of the French Jewish Union for Peace said.
Israel imposed a maritime blockade on the Gaza Strip after the Islamist terrorist group Hamas seized control of the enclave in a military coup in 2007. Israel maintains the measure is necessary to prevent Hamas from smuggling in weapons and terrorists into Gaza.
According to media reports, there are 22 passengers aboard the Awda, including journalists, activists and a Jordanian lawmaker.
Organizers said the flotilla was a "gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians."
An Iranian reporter on the Awda posted a video on his social media accounts Saturday, noting that "there is some medical aid on board, although the amount of medical aid is merely a gesture. We're talking about just a few boxes."
Several activists told Israeli media that they knew the Israeli Navy will take action to prevent them from breaching the blockade and vowed to mount "nonviolent resistance" to any attempt to stop them.
Some activists admitted the concept of Gaza flotillas may have exhausted itself, with one saying, "We're open to new and creative ideas."
Activist Zohar Regev, an Israeli currently residing in Spain, said the flotilla was planned long before Hamas launched its border riot campaign, on March 30.
"Some people on other flotillas are involved with the [riot] campaign in Gaza, but this flotilla has nothing to do with it," she said.
She added that the activists "plan and want to get to Gaza, but if we're stopped by the military we will resist in nonviolent ways. This means we won't invite them on board, but we won't try to hurt them or threaten them."
Israeli rescue pilot-turned-activist Yonatan Shapira is also participating in the flotilla – his fourth – and is sailing aboard the Awda.
While he, too, admitted that the concept of the flotillas has most likely run its course, he said that those campaigning for the end of the Gaza blockade do not believe Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman's assertion that Israel will work with Cyprus to build a seaport in Cyprus that would serve Gaza, in exchange for the release of two Israeli captives and the return of the remains of two IDF soldiers held by Hamas.
"I don't believe a single word Lieberman says. We believe the only way to get Israel to lift the Gaza blockade is through international pressure," he asserted.
Shapira also confirmed that there were some medical supplies on board, but he, too, defined the cargo as a "symbolic gesture. The flotilla's main goal is to raise public awareness to the Gaza blockade."
Past experience suggests that once the navy stops a Gaza-bound flotilla, the ships are diverted to the Ashdod Port in southern Israel. Activists are questioned and then expelled from Israel via Ben-Gurion International Airport.
Since the blockade was imposed, several flotillas have attempted to breach it, only to be stopped by the Israeli Navy.
The most widely reported incident took place in 2010, when the Mavi Marmara, sailing under a Comoros flag, led six ships toward Gaza's waters. The Israeli Navy raided the ship after it refused to stop and turn around. Activists aboard the Mavi Marmara clashed with Israeli commandos and 10 Turkish nationals were killed.
A diplomatic crisis between Israel and then-close regional ally Turkey ensued, and while Israel has since apologized for the incident and paid the victims' families $20 million in restitution, ties between Jerusalem and Ankara remain icy.
