/ 12 July 2010

Israel warning as Libya aid boat eyes Gaza landing

Israel on Sunday vowed to prevent a Libyan aid ship from running the Gaza blockade after it appeared to be heading for the besieged enclave despite a flurry of diplomatic efforts to divert it to Egypt.

“Israel will not let the boat reach Gaza,” minister without portfolio Yossi Peled told Israel’s public radio a day after the 92-metre freighter Amalthea set sail from the Greek port of Lavrio.

Allowing vessels to reach the Hamas-run Gaza Strip without being checked would have “very serious consequences” for Israel’s security, he said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also insisted on Sunday that Israel was determined to enforce the four-year Gaza blockade to keep weapons out of the territory, in an interview with Fox News.

“We are enforcing a security blockade in order to prevent weapons and war material from getting into Gaza,” Netanyahu said

“My policy is simple. Weapons out, everything else in,” he said, recalling that his government last Monday gave the go-ahead for the international community to import construction materials into Gaza.

Meanwhile there was confusion over the Libyan aid ship’s destination on Sunday.

Organisers said it was staying the course for Gaza, despite diplomatic reassurances from Greece that it was headed for the Egyptian port of El-Arish.

“We are heading for Gaza. We will not change direction,” Mashallah Zwei, a representative of the Kadhafi Foundation, a Libyan charity, told Agence-France Presse by satellite phone from on board the Amalthea.

Zwei said the ship was currently “close to Crete” and would likely reach Gaza in about two days.

He insisted the foundation was not seeking “a confrontation or a provocation,” when asked about the risks of a repeat of an Israeli naval raid on an aid flotilla on May 31 that killed nine Turks.

Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak said the attempt to reach Gaza was an “unnecessary provocation.”

“The goods can be transferred to the Gaza Strip through Ashdod port (southern Israel) after being checked,” a statement from his office said.

“However, we will not allow the entry of arms, weapons or anything which will support fighting into Gaza. We recommend that the organisers either let the ship be escorted by navy vessels to Ashdod port or that is sails directly to the port of El-Arish.”

Barak’s office had earlier said the defence minister spoke with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and asked “if Egypt would agree to accept the boat at the port of El-Arish.”

It was not immediately clear if Egypt had acceded to Barak’s request.

The ship’s agent and the Greek foreign ministry had on Saturday assured Israel that the Moldova-flagged vessel, chartered by a charity linked to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi, was heading for El-Arish.

The Kadhafi Foundation, headed by Seif al-Islam Kadhafi, the son of the Libyan leader, insisted however that the ship had not changed course.

“The ship is heading toward Gaza as planned,” executive director Youssef Sawan told AFP by telephone from Tripoli, saying the mission was “purely humane.”

The ship is loaded with 2,000 tonnes of foodstuff and medications and a crew comprising six Libyans, a Moroccan, a Nigerian and an Algerian.

Meanwhile Arab Israeli parliamentarian Ahmed Tibi also said that the ship was heading as planned to Gaza.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has been talking with his counterparts in Greece and Moldova in a bid to encourage the Amalthea to call off its mission, his office said.

“The foreign ministry believes that due to these talks, the ship will not reach Gaza,” a statement said.

Last month’s disastrous Israeli naval assault provoked a major diplomatic crisis with Ankara and unleashed a torrent of international criticism.

Global pressure over the incident has since forced Israel to significantly change its policy on Gaza, and now it only prevents the import of arms and goods that could be used to build weapons or fortifications.

Meanwhile Jordanian activists and trade unionists said they plan to head to Gaza overland on Tuesday through the Egyptian border carrying aid relief and medical supplies.

Last month, Egypt banned a group of Jordanian trade unionists from Gaza through its Rafah crossing, saying they had failed to give prior notice of their arrival. — AFP