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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan |
| All-women aid ship to head to Gaza via Cyprus |
| 2010-08-20 |
| Organisers of a Lebanese women-only aid ship which plans to break the Gaza blockade announced on Thursday they will sail to Cyprus on the first leg of their journey this weekend. "The ship Mariam will leave for Cyprus on Sunday at 10 pm (1900 GMT) from the port of Tripoli" in north Lebanon, organiser Samar al-Hajj told reporters outside the port. The Mariam, a Bolivian-flagged cargo ship Bolivia has cargo ships? originally named the Junia Star, plans to carry aid to Gaza in an bid to break the four-year siege of Gaza with 50 Lebanese and foreign women activists on board, including a local pop star. The Mariam, renamed in honour of the Virgin Mary, would need Cypriot authorisation to depart for Gaza from its shores but officials in Cyprus have said the island was keeping in place a ban on ships departing for Gaza. "The Cypriot ambassador to Lebanon tried to convince us not to go and reiterated that his country would not grant us authorisation to sail to Gaza," Hajj told AFP. "But we are adamant," she added. "We have no arms and we will go to Gaza." Israeli officials have warned the Jewish state would intercept any boats attempting to approach the coast of Gaza, which is run by the Islamist Hamas The United Nations has said that groups seeking to deliver aid to Gaza should send it by land. The "Naji al-Ali," another Lebanese boat organised by journalists and originally named Julia, has also announced it would sail to Gaza via Cyprus but has not yet received clearance from Lebanese authorities. Lebanon and Israel remain technically at war and have no diplomatic ties or maritime links. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #3 Better hope the trip doesn't take a month - that could be a real problem. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2010-08-20 19:58 |
| #2 Actually, they already did that on the second "aid" ship. But hey, it's the best way to respond to this one, too! |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-08-20 02:34 |
| #1 I would intercept them with a shipfull of IDF women. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2010-08-20 02:03 |