Mohamed Ameen Dabhelia – 2018/05/30

The Israel Navy enforced its maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip, stopping a boat of 17 Gazan protesters seeking to breach the naval barrier nine nautical miles off the Gaza coast.

Organizers of the protest, affiliated with the “Great March of Return,” said a large Gazan fishing boat, the Al-Hurriyah (Liberty), would carry a group of Gazans hoping to receive medical treatment or study abroad in an attempt to challenge the maritime blockade.

Speaking to Radio Islam from Gaza, Issam Hammad – one of the members said the flotilla is just a continuation of the “Great March of Return”.

“The aim of this is to send a message to the whole world, that the people here in Gaza have been besieged for the last 11 and half years.”

Hammad says three flotillas headed yesterday to Cyprus from Gaza.

“They left Gaza at around eleven local time, and headed to Cyprus, one was in the plan to continue, while two was supposed to return, we believ that one boat reached a distance of 11 nautical miles.”

This latest incident marks eight years since Israeli naval commandos raided the Turkish ship MV Mavi Marmara, one of six ships of the “Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” leaving nine activists on board dead after violent clashes broke out.