Police block aid bound for Gaza

Source: Agencies  |   2008-12-8  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ISRAELI police yesterday blocked an attempt by Israeli Arabs to sail a boat from Israel to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip with a cargo of food and medical supplies.

Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip has been stepped up in recent weeks amid a surge of violence along its frontier with the Palestinian territory.

An Islamic group in Israel, comprised mainly of Arab citizens of the Jewish state, organized what was to have been the first voyage of a boat from Israel to the Gaza Strip with humanitarian supplies. But police in the port of Jaffa instructed the boat's owner not to set off for Gaza and ordered him to move the vessel to the nearby Tel Aviv marina, where it was put under watch.

"We warned the boat's owner that he would be breaking the law and would be arrested if his boat were to try to sail to Gaza," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

"This is a cowardly act by people and the police who fear our delivery of medication to Gaza's Shifa hospital. But we will continue to try to break the siege," said Ahmed Tibi, an Arab member of Israel's parliament.