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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | ||
| Malaysia aid ship ends sea attempt to Gaza | ||
| 2011-05-24 | ||
| KUALA LUMPUR -- A Malaysian aid ship attempting to land in Gaza after being warned off by Israeli naval forces last week has been forced to abort its mission after engine trouble, activists said. Matthias Chang, who is heading the mission for the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, told AFP on Monday that the MV Finch was now stuck six nautical miles from Egypt's El-Arish port. "At about 5:30pm local time (0330 GMT), our vessel developed engine trouble and we lost our steering capability, so we had to stop our attempt to reach Gaza by sea," he said.
"Although we were not able to reach Gaza by sea, we have achieved our aim of breaking the Israeli embargo by breaching their protection zone last Monday and if the Egyptians deliver on their promise, we will have also achieved our aim of delivering aid to Gaza," Chang said. Perdana Foundation officials said the MV Finch left Greece on May 11, carrying plastic pipes to help However, Israeli naval forces fired warning shots at the vessel when it was in Israeli waters, about 400 metres (yards) from Gaza, and forced the ship into Egyptian waters. Chang said the 12 activists and crew onboard the ship, had on Monday told Egyptian authorities to either allow the vessel to dock and unload its aid or they would carry on to Gaza by sea. As the Egyptians did not respond to the ultimatum, Chang said the ship left the waters off El-Arish, heading towards Israeli waters. Malaysian journalist Alang Bendahara, who was also aboard the vessel, told AFP the aid ship was escorted by an Egyptian navy patrol vessel, which cautioned that Israel's naval forces could attack if they entered Israeli waters. "The mood onboard the ship was very subdued as we were contemplating what would happen but it was clear that everyone was determined to continue so that we could get this much needed aid to Gaza," he said. An official from the foundation Samsudin Hitam confirmed that Egypt has promised to allow the MV Finch to dock and unload its cargo on Tuesday. | ||
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 More of this farce. Duh! The Gazooks have a border with an arab country. More duh! |
| Posted by: Flesing the Bald9034 2011-05-24 15:24 |
| #2 ION ISRAEL NN > HAMAS SEES OBAMA'S '67 BORDERS + RAISES HIM '48 BORDERS. 1967 est good, 1948 even better. * SAME > EU: JERUSALEM MUST BE A "DUAL CAPITAL". Howzabout "Dual Capital" + Year 1948 borders??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-05-24 02:58 |
| #1 According to Malaysia's news agency, Bernama, the MV Finch has been disabled about a week. Their reporter on board complained that "the port authorities had no sent medical aid and clean water" and that the ship would run out of water soon. Also, the leader of the "humanitarian mission" was on the third day of a hunger strike in protest of the Egyptians not granting port access. It's the IBN Khaldoon again - almost. They haven't gotten sick from poor sanitation and bad food handling. Yet. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-05-24 00:46 |